Review of Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary sections in the Rhenish Slate Mountains (Germany)

Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments ◽

10.1007/s12549-020-00469-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

R. Thomas Becker ◽

Sven Hartenfels ◽

Sandra I. Kaiser

Keyword(s):

Black Shale ◽

Upper Devonian ◽

Lower Carboniferous ◽

Alum Shale ◽

Wide Range ◽

Original Definition ◽

Conodont Stratigraphy ◽

Rhenish Slate Mountains

AbstractThirty Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary sections of the Rhenish Slate Mountains and adjacent subsurface areas are reviewed with respect to litho-, event, conodont, ammonoid, sequence, and chemostratigraphy. In the interval from the base of the uppermost Famennian (Wocklum Beds, Wocklumian) to the base of the middle Tournaisian (base Lower Alum Shale), 11 conodont and 16 ammonoid (sub)zones are distinguished. The terminology of the Hangenberg Crisis Interval is refined, with an overall regressive Crisis Prelude below the main Hangenberg Extinction, which defines the base of the transgressive Lower Crisis Interval (Hangenberg Black Shale). The glacigenic and regressive Middle Crisis Interval (Hangenberg Shale/Sandstone) is followed by the overall transgressive Upper Crisis Interval that can be subdivided into three parts (I to III) with the help of conodont stratigraphy (upper costatus-kockeli Interregnum = upper ckI, Protognathodus kockeli Zone, and lower part of Siphonodella (Eosiphonodella) sulcata s.l./Pr. kuehni Zone). Protognathodus kockeli includes currently a wide range of forms, which variabilities and precise ranges need to be established before a precise GSSP level should be selected. Returning to its original definition, the former Upper duplicata Zone is re-named as Siphonodella (S.) mehli Zone. It replaces the S. (S.) jii Zone, which is hampered by taxonomic complications. The S. (S.) quadruplicata Zone of Ji (1985) is hardly supported by Rhenish data. The entry of typical S. (S.) lobata (M1) characterises an upper subdivision (subzone) of the S. (S.) sandbergi Zone; the new S. (S.) lobata M2 enters much earlier within the S. (S.) mehli Zone. The ammonoid-defined base of the Wocklum-Stufe (Upper Devonian = UD VI) begins with the Linguaclymenia similis Zone (UD VI-A1). The oldest S. (Eosiphonodella) enter within the Muessenbiaergia bisulcata Zone (UD VI-A2). The traditional Parawocklumeria paradoxa Zone of Schindewolf (1937) is divided into successive P. paprothae (VI-C1), P. paradoxa (VI-C2), and Mayneoceras nucleus (VI-C3) Subzones. In the lower Tournaisian (Lower Carboniferous = LC I), the Gattendorfia subinvoluta Zone is subdivided into G. subinvoluta (LC I-A2) and “Eocanites” nodosus (LC I-A3) Subzones. The Paprothites dorsoplanus Zone (LC I-B) can be divided into Pap. dorsoplanus (LC I-B1) and Paragattendorfia sphaeroides (LC I-B2) Subzones. Potential subdivisions of the Pseudarietites westfalicus (LC I-C) and Parag. patens Zones (LC I-D) are less distinctive. The unfossiliferous or argillaceous upper part of the Hangenberg Limestone and the overlying Lower Alum Shale Event Interval remain regionally unzoned for ammonoids.

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XXVIII.—On the Presence of Tetrads of Resistant Spores in the Tissue of Sporocarpon furcatum Dawson from the Upper Devonian of America

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ◽

10.1017/s0080456800027496 ◽

1925 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 597-601 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

R. Kidston ◽

W. H. Lang

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

North America ◽

Black Shale ◽

Black Shales ◽

Upper Devonian ◽

The South ◽

Large Area ◽

Lower Carboniferous ◽

Red Sandstone ◽

Western Border

The deposits of the Devonian period over a large area in the interior of North America to the south of the great lakes are known to be wholly of marine type and to have continued those of the Silurian period. They were formed in a great gulf open to the south. Along the western border of this gulf shore-deposits and, during Upper Devonian times, deposits of Old Red Sandstone type were accumulated, while in the middle of the gulf the resulting rocks were limestones and shales. In Ohio, following on a narrow band of what is regarded as Oriskany Sandstone (Lower Devonian), the Corniferous limestone and some local representatives of the Hamilton formation represent the Middle Devonian. Above this comes a great mass of black shale, which here represents the whole Upper Devonian and may continue up into black shales of the Lower Carboniferous. A black shale at the base of the Upper Devonian rocks has an extensive range in the central region of North America, being represented by the Huron shale in Canada and the Genessee shale in New York. Drifted land plants from the coast of the gulf, or from islands in it, have been found in the black shale and also in the underlying Corniferous limestone, and some other fossils are commonly spoken of as Algæ but have afforded little or no botanical information.

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Detrital zircon geochronology and provenance of Devono-Mississippian strata in the northern Canadian Cordilleran miogeoclineThis article is one of a series of papers published in this Special Issue on the theme of Geochronology in honour of Tom Krogh.Northwest Territories Geoscience Office Contribution 0047. Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 20100432.

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e10-056 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 515-541 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Yvon Lemieux ◽

Thomas Hadlari ◽

Antonio Simonetti

Keyword(s):

Detrital Zircon ◽

Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽

Source Region ◽

Upper Devonian ◽

Detrital Zircons ◽

Detrital Zircon Geochronology ◽

Inductively Coupled ◽

Arctic Alaska ◽

Wide Range ◽

Late Neoproterozoic

U–Pb ages have been determined on detrital zircons from the Upper Devonian Imperial Formation and Upper Devonian – Lower Carboniferous Tuttle Formation of the northern Canadian Cordilleran miogeocline using laser ablation – multicollector – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry. The results provide insights into mid-Paleozoic sediment dispersal in, and paleogeography of, the northern Canadian Cordillera. The Imperial Formation yielded a wide range of detrital zircon dates; one sample yielded dominant peaks at 1130, 1660, and 1860 Ma, with smaller mid-Paleozoic (∼430 Ma), Neoproterozoic, and Archean populations. The easternmost Imperial Formation sample yielded predominantly late Neoproterozoic – Cambrian zircons between 500 and 700 Ma, with lesser Mesoproterozoic and older populations. The age spectra suggest that the samples were largely derived from an extensive region of northwestern Laurentia, including the Canadian Shield, igneous and sedimentary provinces of Canada’s Arctic Islands, and possibly the northern Yukon. The presence of late Neoproterozoic – Cambrian zircon, absent from the Laurentian magmatic record, indicate that a number of grains were likely derived from an exotic source region, possibly including Baltica, Siberia, or Arctic Alaska – Chukotka. In contrast, zircon grains from the Tuttle Formation show a well-defined middle Paleoproterozoic population with dominant relative probability peaks between 1850 and 1950 Ma. Additional populations in the Tuttle Formation are mid-Paleozoic (∼430 Ma), Mesoproterozoic (1000–1600 Ma), and earlier Paleoproterozoic and Archean ages (>2000 Ma). These data lend support to the hypothesis that the influx of sediments of northerly derivation that supplied the northern miogeocline in Late Devonian time underwent an abrupt shift to a source of predominantly Laurentian affinity by the Mississippian.

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