Huaiyuan Epeirogeny—Shaping Ordovician stratigraphy and sedimentation on the North China Platform

Abstract

Ordovician conodont studies have revealed a depositional hiatus extending from the late Floian to early Darriwilian on the North China Platform. Recognition of this widespread gap entails revision of the original concept of the Huaiyuan Epeirogeny, with definition of two distinct regional tectonic events: Event 1, which initiated this hiatus, and a subsequent Event 2 that was responsible for terminating Early Palaeozoic sedimentation in the region from the late Katian. The timing of these two events partly coincides with widely recognized eustatic sea-level falls, and separates Ordovician sedimentation into two episodes that can be broadly correlated with eustatic sea-level rises. In combination with these sea-level changes, the Huaiyuan Epeirogeny played a decisive role in shaping and controlling Ordovician sedimentation and sequence stratigraphic architecture on the North China Platform. Lower Ordovician carbonates were deposited during an apparent regression (decreasing accommodation space), resulting from rapid sediment accumulation exceeding the overall rate of basement subsidence and eustatic sea-level rise. Sedimentation ceased in the middle

Conodonts in Ordovician biostratigraphy

“…Recently, Zhen et al . () revised the Ordovician conodont biostratigraphy of the extensive carbonate successions on the North China platform (cf. Fig.…”

“…For a modern review of zones recognized in South China, see Zhan & Jin (2007, p. 91-94), and for a recent discussion, with many references, of Middle and Upper Ordovician Chinese conodont biostratigraphy, see . Recently, Zhen et al (2016) revised the Ordovician conodont biostratigraphy of the extensive carbonate successions on the North China platform (cf. Fig.…”

Geographical Distribution and Diversity History of Late Cambrian and Ordovician Gastropods in China

“…A diversity peak in North China is reached in the Darriwilian, with 30 genera recorded, and thereafter the diversity decreases gradually. As no stratigraphic records of late Katian and Hirnantian in North China are preserved, due to the Huaiyuan Epeirogeny (Zhen et al, 2016), the gastropod diversity of this specific time interval is not available.In South China, for most of the Ordovician time, gastropods have a relatively low generic diversity of no more than 9, but a diversity peak of 29 genera was observed in the Katian. It is noteworthy that 9 genera of Hirnantian age are recorded in South China, mostly from the Kuanyinchiao Bed (carbonate) on the top of Wufeng Formation perhaps owing to the poor studies conducted or alternatively anunfavoured facies for gastropods (largely dolomitic; Zhang and Munnecke, 2016).…”

Slope failure on a Cambrian carbonate platform, mass-flow transitions and resulting complex deposit

“…The re gion forms part of the Luxi Block of the North China Plat form. This plat form was tec toni cally sta ble and cov ered a vast epeiric sea dur ing the Pa leo zoic, with the ex cep tion of a few phases of mi nor up lift dur ing the Mid dle Cam brian to Early Or do vi cian (Meng et al, 1997;Zhen et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2019).…”