Yang Ruidong

Stratigraphical and biological significance of negative carbon isotopic anomalies in the basal Cambrian series of Guizhou Province

The early Early Cambrian strata within the bounds of Guizhou Province are almost predominated by black shale deposition. Recently, however, the authors have found a section consisting of a set of mudstones interbedded with limestones at the basement of the Cambrian at Yingping, Fuquan County, Guizhou Province, which provides favorable conditions for the study of marine geochemical characteristics of the early Early Cambrian. The characteristics of intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary at Yingping, Fuquan County, Guizhou Province, can be correlated with those of global carbon isotopic anomalies at the same time on a global scale, corresponding to the intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies near the Neoproterozoic/Cambrian boundaries at the bottom of the Xiaowaitoushan Member, Huize, Yunnan Province, at the top of the Tsagaan Oloom Formation of Mongolia and at the top of the Salarmy Gol Formation of Siberia, as well as those observed in southwestern United States, Iran, Amman, Poland, Newfoundland, the Great Britain, Canada, etc. Negative carbon isotopic anomalies can be used as the important basis for the division of the Precambrian/Cambrian boundaries. There have been found 8 m-thick black shales and cherts below the intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies in this profile. In the black shales there have been found large amounts of fossils such asBradorida, gernusArchotuba, indicating that during the period of sedimentation of black shales under anaerobic conditions there would be large quantities of organic species living in the sea. But in the section of grayish-green mudstones interbedded with limestones with intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies almost no organic fossil has been found. This may imply that the anaerobic event seems to have little bearing on the mass extinction near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, whereas the intense negative carbon isotopic anomaly event appears to be more closely related to the mass extinction occurring near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary.

Geochemical Characteristics and Tectonic Significance of Triassic Granite from Taer Region, the Northern Margin of West Kunlun

: Late Hercynian-early Indosinian (Triassic) granite is widely distributed around the Taer region of the northern margin of West Kunlun. The rock mass is mainly composed of calcalkaline porphyroid biotite adamellite and characterized by SiO2-rich, high-Ca, moderate-alkaline, and strongly peraluminous attributes, and relatively low ΣREE with LREE enrichment and a moderate Eu anomaly. As shown in the trace element spider web diagram, distinct peaks appear for Th, La, Nd, and Zr and clearly low values appear for Ba, Nb, Sr, P, and Ti. Further, compared with the primitive mantle, Rb/Sr and Rb/Ba are considerably higher and Nd/Th and Nb/Ta are relative low, all falling into the scope of the crust-origin rocks, indicating the characteristics of the crust-origin S-type granite. The rock masss zircon U-Pb isotopic age is determined to be 235.7 ± 3.9 Ma. On the basis of the age data, spatio-temporal location, lithology, and geochemistry of the rock mass, we conclude that the formation of the rock mass is closely related to the strong compressional orogenic movement (240 Ma) of the Tianshuihai terrane and the South Kunlun terrane. The rock mass is the product of the collision orogenic movement. However, distinct differences are observed between the studied rock mass and the synorogenic Bulunkou rock mass, which may be caused by the different collision strength and different positions with respect to the collision zone.

Vermicular fossils in the early Cambrian Xidashan Formation in the Quruqtagh region of Xinjiang, China

Abstract Large amounts of vermicular fossils and a minor amount of sponge animal fossils have been found in the Early Cambrian Xidashan Formation in the region of Quruqtagh, Xinjiang. Vermicular fossils are generally more than 50 mm long and 0.3-1.4 mm wide; their wrinkled lamellae are microfine with 3-10 pieces within the length of every each millimeter. The fossils are considered to be Sabellidites cambriensis Sokolov (1965). The Xidashan Formation is the highest stratum in which Sabellidites occur, as has been so far reported. * Supported by the Major Stage Basic Research Development Program of China (Grant No. 2002CCC02600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 400462001, 40062001), Guizhou Provincial Excellent Talent Foundation (2002-013), the Postdoctoral Scientific Foundation of China (20033209) and Guizhou Provincial President’s Funds (2004-233)

Chemostratigraphy and lithological characters of Neoproterozoic cap carbonates from the Kuruktag Mountain, Xinjiang, western China

The Neoproterozoic Era includes some of the most largest ice ages in the geological history. The exact number of glaciations is unknown, though there were at least two events of global glaciation. Neoproterozoic glacial deposits in the Kuruktag Mountain, Xinjiang, western China have proven that there had occurred three discrete Neoproterozoic glaciations. Diamictite units occurred in the Bayisi, Tereeken, and Hankalchough formations, carbonate units were recognized among the diamictites and immediately overlied the Bayisi, Tereeken and Hankalchough diamictites. Carbonates at the top of the Bayisi Formation are characterized by the dolo-sility stones with negative δ13C values ranging from −4.10‰ to −8.17‰ (PDB), comparable to the Sturtian cap carbonates that overlie the Sturtian glacial deposits from other Neoproterozoic sequences. Carbonates overlying the Tereeken Formation are characterized by the pinkish cap dolostones (ca. 10 m thick) with negative δ13C values ranging from −2.58‰ to −4.77‰ (PDB), comparable to the Marinoan cap carbonates. The cap is also characterized by tepee-like structures, barite precipitates and pseudomorphous aragonite crystal fan limestones. Carbonates at the top of the Hankalchough Formation are characterized by subaerial exposure crust (vadose pisolite structure, calcareous crust structure) dolostones with negative δ13C values ranging from −4.56‰ to −11.45‰ (PDB) and the calcareous crust dolostones, implying that the Hankalchough cap carbonates differ from either the Sturtian or Marinoan cap carbonates in sedimentary environment and carbon isotopic composition. In addition, it is suggested the Hankalchough glaciation belongs to a terrestrial glaciation and it is the third largest glaciation during the Neoproterozoic period on the Tarim platform.

Research on carbon and oxygen isotopes in phosphorus-bearing rock series of the Late Neoproteroic-Early Cambrian Taozichong Formation in Qingzhen City, Guizhou Province, Southwest China

In the study of the phosphate-bearing stratum at the bottom of the Cambrian system, the authors found that there occurred carbon isotope negative anomalies in the Taozichong section phosphate-bearing stratum in Qingzhen, Guizhou Province; they can be correspondingly compared with other synsedimentary carbon isotope negative anomalies both at home and abroad. The results showed that there occurred three negative anomalies of carbon isotopes in the Neoproterozoic-Early Cambrian Taozichong Formation, indicating that the temporal palaeo-oceanographical environment changed significantly, in which there happened two times of intensive carbon isotope variation, corresponding to creature extinction. Meanwhile, it is believed that the carbon isotope negative anomalies in phosphorites were caused by the ascending water mass of ocean current with the negative carbon isotopic composition of deep-ocean hydrothermal deposits.

Mechanism of Iodine Enrichment in Phosphorite of Late Sinian, SW China

Yangtze platform Doushantuoian is the first large-scale phosphorous forming peak period of China, and the sedimentary phosphorite is widely distributed in south China, at same time, this area have phosphorous deposits with abundant iodine element. Especially, the phosphorite occurred in the Doushantuo formation in the Late Ediacaran in Central Guizhou features the highest iodine, with the content achieving 76 mg kg -1 (Zhou 1984; Zhang et al., 2003). In 20 th century many countries extract the iodine from the phosphorite, hovever, the process flow was complicated the production cost was too high and the industrialized production was not realized (Zhang et al., 2011; Reich et al., 2013). In 2007, Wengfu (Group) Co., Ltd. extracted the iodine from the processing of the phosphorite successfully. The proved phosphate ore reserve of the whole Guizhou Province is 2.7 billion tons. There is a large reserve of associated iodine resource, for instance, the Yingping ore block of Wengfu phosphate ore has associated iodine reserve of almost 7,000 t (Zhang et al., 2011). However, the previous researches all focus on the mineral processing technology, only few of them related to the enriching reasons and rules, occurrence states and control factors of the iodine in the phosphorite, which becomes as a point of departure and priority to this research work.