Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T22:24:21.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Belgian substages as a basis for an international chronostratigraphic division of the Tournaisian and Viséan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2013

EDOUARD POTY ,
MARKUS ARETZ  and
LUC HANCE
EDOUARD POTY*
Affiliation:
Université de Liège, Département de Géologie, Paléontologie animale et humaine, Bat. B18, Allée du Six-Août, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
MARKUS ARETZ
Affiliation:
Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), Observatoire Midi Pyrénées, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, 14 avenue E. Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France
LUC HANCE
Affiliation:
Carmeuse s.a., bd de Lauzelles, 65, B1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
*
†Author for correspondence: e.poty@ulg.ac.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Tournaisian and Viséan were formerly considered as series and in Belgium were divided into two (Hastarian and Ivorian) and three stages (Moliniacian, Livian and Warnantian), which are now considered as substages. The Belgian substages are based on conodonts and foraminifers, and incidentally on rugose corals, and are described here. Their boundaries, biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy are well detailed and clearly defined. The base of the Hastarian (lower Tournaisian) corresponds to the base of the Tournaisian (base of Carboniferous); the base of the Ivorian (upper Tournaisian) corresponds to the appearance of the conodont Polygnathus communis carina, a little above the last Siphonodella; the base of the Moliniacian (lower Viséan) corresponds to the base of the Viséan stage defined by the first occurrence of the foraminifer Eoparastaffella simplex; the Livian (middle Viséan) corresponds to the foraminiferal MFZ12 Zone and is marked by the appearance of Koskinotextularia and Pojarkovella nibelis; the base of the Warnantian (upper Viséan) is marked by the appearance of Neoarchaediscus, Vissariotaxis, Planospirodiscus, and Palaeotextularia with a bilaminar wall, the index taxa of the MFZ13-Neoarchaediscus Zone. The up-to-date chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Tournaisian and Viséan is not limited to Belgium and the surrounding areas. It can be applied through Eurasia as far as South China. The Belgian units could therefore be the basis for a future international division of the Tournaisian into two parts (Hastarian and Ivorian) and of the Viséan into three parts (Moliniacian, Livian and Warnantian), corresponding to time intervals of c. 5–8 Ma.

Keywords

MississippianBelgiumstratigraphystage
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 151 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 229 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aretz, M. & Chevalier, E. 2007. After the collapse of stromatoporid sponge-coral reefs – The Famennian and Dinantian reefs of Belgium: Much more than Waulsortian Mounds. In Palaeozoic Reefs and Bioaccumulations: Climatic and Evolutionary Controls (eds Álvaro, J.-J., Aretz, M., Boulvain, F., Munnecke, A., Vachard, D. & Vennin, E.), pp. 163–88. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 275.Google Scholar
Aretz, M. & Nudds, J. R. 2005. The coral fauna of the Holkerian/Asbian boundary stratotype section (Carboniferous) at Little Asby Scar (Cumbria, Great Britain) and implications for the boundary. Stratigraphy 2, 167–90.Google Scholar
Belka, Z. & Groessens, E. 1986. Conodont succession across the Tournaisian-Viséan boundary beds at Salet, Belgium. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 95, 257–80.Google Scholar
Casier, J. G., Mamet, B., Préat, A. & Sandberg, C. A. 2004. Sedimentology, conodonts and ostracods of the Devonian – Carboniferous strata of the Anseremme railway bridge section, Dinant Basin, Belgium. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 74, 45–68.Google Scholar
Chevalier, E. & Aretz, M. 2005. A microbe-bryozoan reef from the Middle Visean of the Namur Syncline (Engihoul quarry). Geologica Belgica 8/1–2, 109–19.Google Scholar
Coen, M., Groessens, E. & Sevastopulo, G. 2004. Conodonts and ostracods from the section at Longdianshan (upper Tournaisian of Guangxi, China). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 74, 89–100.Google Scholar
Collinson, C. W. 1961. The Kinderhookian Series in the Mississippi Valley. Kansas Geological Society 26th Annual Field Conference Guidebook. Missouri Geological Survey and Water Resources. Report of Investigations 27, 100–9.Google Scholar
Conil, R., Dreesen, R., Lentz, M. A., Lys, M. & Plodowski, G. 1986. The Devonian-Carboniferous transition in the Franco-Belgian basin with reference to foraminifera and brachiopods. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 109–1, 19–26.Google Scholar
Conil, R., Groessens, E., Laloux, M. & Poty, E. 1989. La limite Tournaisien/Viséen dans la région-type. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 112–1, 177–89.Google Scholar
Conil, R., Groessens, E., Laloux, M., Poty, E. & Tourneur, F. 1991. Carboniferous guide foraminifera, corals and conodonts in the Franco-Belgian and Campine Basins: their potential for widespread correlation. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 130, 15–30.Google Scholar
Conil, R., Groessens, E. & Pirlet, H. 1977. Nouvelle charte stratigraphique du Dinantien type de la Belgique. Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord 96, 363–71.Google Scholar
Cózar, P. & Somerville, I. D. 2004. New algal and foraminiferal evidence for the recognition of the Asbian/Brigantian boundary in northern England. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 55, 43–65.Google Scholar
Delcambre, B. 1989. Marqueurs téphrostratigraphiques au passage des calcaires de Neffe vers ceux de Lives. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 98–2, 163–70.Google Scholar
Denayer, J. & Aretz, M. 2012. The first Turkish Carboniferous reef: the Upper Viséan microbial-sponge-bryozoan-coral bioherm from Kongul Yayla (Taurides, S Turkey). Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences 21, 375–89.Google Scholar
Devuyst, F.-X. 2006. The Tournaisian-Viséan boundary in Eurasia; definition, biostratigraphy, sedimentology and early evolution of the genus Eoparastaffella (foraminifer). Ph.D. thesis, Faculté des Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Published thesis.Google Scholar
Devuyst, F.-X. & Hance, L. 2003. Early evolution of the genus Eoparastaffella (foraminifer): a high-resolution biostratigraphical tool for the Tournaisian-Viséan boundary. 15th International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian Stratigraphy. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 10–16 August 2003. Abstracts, 123, 124.Google Scholar
Devuyst, F.-X., Hance, L. & Poty, E. 2006. Moliniacian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 123–31.Google Scholar
Devuyst, F.-X., Sevastopoulo, G., Hance, L., Hou, H., Kalvoda, J. & Wu, X. 2004. Progress report of the task group to establish a boundary close to the existing Tournaisian-Viséan boundary. Newsletter on Carboniferous Stratigraphy 22, 8–11.Google Scholar
George, T. N., Johnson, G. A. L., Mitchell, M., Prentice, J. E., Ramsbottom, W. H. C., Sevastopulo, G. D. & Wilson, R. B. 1976. A correlation of Dinantian rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society Special Report 7, 1–87.Google Scholar
Groessens, E. 1975. Distribution des conodontes dans le Dinantien de la Belgique. International Symposium on Belgian micropaleontological limits from Emsian to Viséan, Namur 1974. Geological Survey of Belgium, Publication 17, 1–193.Google Scholar
Hance, L. 1979. Révision micropaléontologique du Dinantien de Horion-Hozémont. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 88, 253–72.Google Scholar
Hance, L., Hou, H. & Vachard, D. 2011. Upper Famennian to Viséan foraminifers and some carbonate microproblematica from South China - Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou. Beijing: Geological Publishing House, 359 pp.Google Scholar
Hance, L. & Poty, E. 2006. Hastarian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 111–16.Google Scholar
Hance, L., Poty, E. & Devuyst, F.-X. 2001. Stratigraphie séquentielle du Dinantien type (Belgique) et corrélation avec le Nord de la France (Boulonnais, Avesnois). Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 172–4, 411–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hance, L., Poty, E. & Devuyst, F.-X. 2002. Sequence stratigraphy of the Belgian Lower Carboniferous – tentative correlation with the British Isles. In Carboniferous and Permian of the World (eds Hills, L. V., Henderson, C. M. & Bamber, E. W.), pp. 41–51. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir no. 19.Google Scholar
Hance, L., Poty, E. & Devuyst, F.-X. 2006 a. Tournaisian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 47–53.Google Scholar
Hance, L., Poty, E. & Devuyst, F.-X. 2006 b. Viséan. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 55–62.Google Scholar
Hance, L., Poty, E. & Devuyst, F.-X. 2006 c. Ivorian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 117–22.Google Scholar
Heckel, P. 2004. Chairman's column. Newsletter on Carboniferous stratigraphy 22, 1–3.Google Scholar
Hecker, M. 2001. Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian and Serpukhovian) rugose coral zonation of the East European Platform and Urals, and correlation with Western Europe. Bulletin of the Tohoku University Museum (Sendai) 1, 298–310.Google Scholar
Higgs, K. T., Dreesen, R., Dusar, M. & Streel, M. 1992. Palynostratigraphy of the Tournaisian (Hastarian) rocks in the Namur Synclinorium, West Flanders, Belgium. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 72, 149–158.Google Scholar
Jin, X., Devuyst, F.-X., Hance, L., Poty, E., Aretz, M., Yin, B. & Hou, H. 2007. Post-Congress excursion C2 June 25–28, 2007. Stratigraphy and lithofacies of the Tournaisian and Viséan in the Guilin-Liuzhou area, Guangxi, South China. XVI International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian 2007. Nanjing, China, 41 pp.Google Scholar
Kammer, T. W., Brenckle, P. L., Carter, J. L. & Ausich, W. I. 1990. Redefinition of the Osagean-Meramecian boundary in the Mississippian stratotype region. Palaios 5, 414–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, H. R. 1974. Mississippian of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas – a wedge on wedge relation. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 58, 269–82.Google Scholar
Lane, H. R. & Brenckle, P. L. 2001. Type Mississippian subdivisions and stratigraphic succession. In Stratigraphy and Biostratigraphy of the Mississippian Subsystem (Carboniferous System) in its Type Region, the Mississippi River Valley of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa (ed. Heckel, P. H.), pp. 83–107. IUGS Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy, Guidebook for Field Conference September 8–13.Google Scholar
Lane, H. R., Sandberg, C. & Ziegler, W. 1980. Taxonomy and phylogeny of some Lower Carboniferous conodonts and preliminary standard post-Siphonodella Zonation. Geologica et Palaeontologica 14, 117–64.Google Scholar
Lauwers, A. S. 1992. Growth and diagenesis of cryptalgal-bryozoan buildups within a mid-Viséan (Dinantian) cyclic sequence, Belgium. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 115, 187–213.Google Scholar
Lewis, H. P. 1935. The Lower Carboniferous of Nova Scotia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 10 (VII), 118–42.Google Scholar
Mamet, B., Clayes, P., Herbosh, A., Préat, A. & Wolfavisz, P. 1986. La ‘Grande Brèche’ viséenne (V3a) des bassins de Namur et de Dinant (Belgique) est probablement une brèche d'effondrement. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 95, 151–66.Google Scholar
Menning, M., Weyer, D., Drozdzewski, G. & Wendt, I. 2001. More radiometric ages for the Carboniferous time scale. Newsletter on Carboniferous Stratigraphy 19, 16–18.Google Scholar
Mitchell, M., Reynolds, M. J., Laloux, M. & Owens, B. 1982. Biostratigraphy of the Knap Farm borehole at Cannington Park, Somerset. Report Institute of Geological Sciences 82/5, 8–17.Google Scholar
Mottequin, B. 2004. Paléoécologie et interprétation sédimentologique du Marbre noir de Denée (Viséen inférieur, Belgique). Geologica Belgica 7–1, 3–19.Google Scholar
Paproth, E., Conil, R., Bless, M. J. M., Boonen, P., Carpentier, N., Coen, M., Delcambre, B., Deprijck, Ch., Deuzon, S., Dreesen, R., Groessens, E., Hance, L., Hennebert, M., Hibo, D., Hahn, G., Hahn, R., Hislaire, O., Kasig, W., Laloux, M., Lauwers, A., Lees, A., Lys, M., Op De Beek, K., Overlau, P., Pirlet, H., Poty, E., Ramsbottom, W., Streel, M., Swennen, R., Thorez, J., Vanguestaine, M., Van Steenwinckel, M. & Vieslet, J. L. 1983. Bio- and Lithostratigraphic subdivisions of the Dinantian in Belgium, a review. Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 106, 185–239.Google Scholar
Plint, A. G. & Nummedal, D. 2000. The falling stage system tract: recognition and importance in sequence stratigraphic analysis. In Sedimentary responses to forced regressions (eds Hunt, D. & Gawthorpe, R. L.), pp. 1–17. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 172.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 1981. Recherches sur les Tétracoralliaires et les Hétérocoralliaires du Viséen de la Belgique. Mededelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst (The Netherlands) 35–1, 1–161.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 1984. An evolutionary pattern for the Western European Lithostrotionidae. Palaeontographica Americana 54, 465–9.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 1985. A Rugose Coral biozonation for the Dinantian of Belgium as a basis for a coral biozonation of the Dinantian of Eurasia. In Compte-rendu du X Congrès International de Stratigraphie et de Géologie du Carbonifère, Madrid 1983, pp. 29–31. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, 4.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 1997. Devonian and Carboniferous tectonics in the eastern and southeastern part of the Brabant Massif (Belgium). Aardkundige Mededelingen 8, 143–4.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 1999. Famennian and Tournaisian recoveries of shallow water Rugosa following late Frasnian and late Strunian major crises, southern Belgium and surrounding areas, Hunan (South China) and the Omolon region (NE Siberia). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 154, 11–26.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 2002. Stratigraphy and paleobiogeography of Carboniferous rugose corals of Nova Scotia. In Carboniferous and Permian of the World (eds Hills, L. V., Henderson, C. M. & Bamber, E. W.), pp. 580–7. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 19.Google Scholar
Poty, E. 2007. The Avins event: a remarkable worldwide spread of corals at the end of the Tournaisian (Lower Carboniferous). In Fossil Corals and Sponges; Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera, Graz, 2003 (eds Hubmann, B. & Piller, W. E.), pp. 231–49. Schriftenreihe der Erdwissenschaftlichen Kommissionen, Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 17.Google Scholar
Poty, E., Aretz, M. & Denayer, J. 2011. Field trip 3: Uppermost Devonian and Lower Carboniferous of southern Belgium. In 11th Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera, Liège, August 19–29, 2011, Field guides (eds Aretz, M. & Poty, E.), pp. 99–150. Kölner Forum für Geologie und Paläontologie 20.Google Scholar
Poty, E., Berkowski, B., Chevalier, E. & Hance, L. 2003. Biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic correlations between the Dinantian deposits of Belgium and Southern Poland (Krakow area). In Proceedings of the XVth International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian Stratigraphy, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 10–16 August 2003 (ed. Wrong, Th. E.), pp. 97–107. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.Google Scholar
Poty, E., Conil, R., Groessens, E., Laloux, M. & Laurent, S. 1988. Royseux. In Pre-Congress Excursion to the Carboniferous Stratotypes in Belgium (eds Laloux, M., Bouckaert, J., Conil, R., Groessens, E., Laurent, S., Overlau, P., Pirlet, H., Poty, E., Schiltz, M. & Vandenberghe, N.). Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 95–3, 243–7.Google Scholar
Poty, E., Devuyst, F.-X. & Hance, L. 2006. Upper Devonian and Mississippian foraminiferal and rugose coral zonation of Belgium and Northern France: a tool for Eurasian correlations. Geological Magazine 143 (6), 829–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poty, E. & Hance, L. 2006 a. Livian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 133–8.Google Scholar
Poty, E. & Hance, L. 2006 b. Warnantian. Geologica Belgica 9/1–2, 139–44.Google Scholar
Poty, E., Hance, L., Lees, A. & Hennebert, M. 2002. Dinantian lithostratigraphic units (Belgium). In Guide to a Revised Lithostratigraphic Scale of Belgium (eds Bultynck, P. & Dejonghe, L.), pp. 69–94. Geologica Belgica 4(1–2).Google Scholar
Ramsbottom, W. H. C. 1981. Field guide to the boundary stratotypes of the Carboniferous stages in Britain. Biennal Meeting of the Subcommision on Carboniferous Stratigraphy, Leeds, 110 pp.Google Scholar
Ramsbottom, W. H. C. & Mitchell, M. 1980. The recognition and division of the Tournaisian series in Britain. Journal of the Geological Society 137–1, 61–3.Google Scholar
Reitlinger, E. A., Vdovenko, M. V., Gubareva, V. S. & Shcherbakov, O. A. 1996. Lower Carboniferous. In European Part of the USSR (eds Einor, O. L., Nemirovskaya, T. I. & Solovieva, M. N.), pp. 23–54. Madrid: Instituto Technologica GeoMinero de Espana and Leiden: NNM.Google Scholar
Thomson, T. L. 1967. Conodont zonation of Lower Osagean rocks (Lower Mississippian) of southwestern Missouri. Missouri Geological Survey and Water Resources, Report of Investigations 39, 1–88.Google Scholar
Van Steenwinkel, M. 1984. The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in the vicinity of Dinant, Belgium. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 67, 57–69.Google Scholar
Van Steenwinkel, M. 1990. Sequence stratigraphy from ‘spot’ outcrops: example from a carbonate-dominated setting: Devonian-Carboniferous transition, Dinant synclinorium (Belgium). Sedimentary Geology 69, 259–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Steenwinkel, M. 1993. The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in southern Belgium: biostratigraphic identification criteria of sequence boundaries. In Sequence Stratigraphy and Facies Associations (eds Posamentier, H. W., Summerhayes, C. P., Haq, B. U. & Allen, G. P.), pp. 237–46. International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication no. 18.Google Scholar
Vaughan, A. 1906. The Carboniferous Limestone series (Avonian) of the Avon Gorge. The Bristol Naturalists’ Society Proceedings 4 (1), 74–168.Google Scholar
Von Bitter, P. H. & Legrand-Blain, M. 2007. Gigantoproductid brachiopod from the Musquodoboit Limestone of Nova Scotia (upper Windsor Group, Mississippian): Late Asbian-Brigantian paleobiogeographic connections between Eastern Canada and Central England. In Proceedings of the XVth International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian Stratigraphy. Utrecht, the Netherlands, 10–16 August 2003 (ed. Wrong, Th. E.), pp. 191–203. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.Google Scholar
Waters, C. N., Somerville, I. D., Jones, N. S., Cleal, C. J., Collinson, J. D., Waters, R. A., Besly, B. M., Dean, M. T., Stephenson, M. H., Davies, J. R., Freshney, E. C., Jackson, D. I., Mitchell, W. I., Powell, J. H., Barclay, W. J., Browne, M. A. E., Leveridge, B. E., Long, S. L. & McLean, D. 2011. A revised correlation of Carboniferous rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society Special Report 26, 1–186.Google Scholar
Webster, G.D. & Groessens, E. 1991. Conodont subdivision of the Lower Carboniferous. Courier Forschungsinstitute Senckenberg 130, 31–40.Google Scholar
Ziegler, W. & Sandberg, C. A. 1984. Important candidate sections for stratotype of conodont based Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 67, 231–9.Google Scholar