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First documentation of the Ordovician Guttenberg ¹³C excursion (GICE) in Asia: chemostratigraphy of the Pagoda and Yanwashan formations in southeastern China

STIG M. BERGSTRÖM^*,, CHEN XU, BIRGER SCHMITZ, SETH YOUNG^*, RONG JIA-YU and MATTHEW R. SALTZMAN^*

^* School of Earth Sciences, Division of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China
GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Department of Geology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, Se-223 62 Lund, Sweden

Author for correspondence: Stig{at}geology.ohio-state.edu

The only published ¹³C data from the Ordovician of China are from the Lower and Upper Ordovician, and only the latter records include a significant excursion, namely the Hirnantian excursion (HICE). Our recent chemostratigraphic work on the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian–Katian) Pagoda and Yanwashan formations at several localities on the Yangtze Platform and Chiangnan (Jiangnan) slope belt has resulted in the recognition of a positive ¹³C excursion that has values of ~ +1.5 above baseline values. This excursion starts a few metres above a stratigraphic interval with B. alobatus Subzone conodonts as well as graptolites of the N. gracilis Zone. The distinctive conodonts Amorphognathus aff. Am. ventilatus and Hamarodus europaeus first occur at, or very near, the excursion interval. Because these conodonts appear in the stratigraphic interval of the Guttenberg ¹³C excursion (GICE) in Estonia, we identify the Chinese excursion as the GICE. This is the first record of the GICE in the entire Asian continent. It confirms that GICE is a global excursion and provides an illustration of how ¹³C chemostratigraphy, combined with new biostratigraphic data, solves the problem of the previously controversial age of the Pagoda Formation and how this classical stratigraphic unit correlates with the Baltoscandian and North American successions.

Key Words: Upper Ordovician • Guttenberg carbon isotope excursion • GICE • conodonts • Pagoda Formation • China