Earthquake-controlled event deposits and its tectonic significance from the Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone in the Sydney Basin, Australia

The Sydney-Bowen basin in eastern Australia is an elongate back arc-converted foreland basin system situated between the Lachlan Fold Belt in the west and the New England Fold Belt in the east. The Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone at Warden Head near Ulladulla in the southern Sydney Basin is dominated by fossiliferous siltstone and mudstone, with a large amount of dropstones and minor pebbly sandstone beds. Two general types of deposits are recognized from the siltstone unit in view of the timing and mechanism of formation. One is represented by the primary deposits from offshore to subtidal environments with abundant dropstones of glacial marine origin. The second type is distinguished by secondary, soft-sediment deformational deposits and structures, and comprises three layers of mudstone dykes of seismic origin. In the latter type, metre scale, laterally extensive syn-depositional slump deformation structures occur in the middle part of the Wandrawandian Siltstone. The deformation structures vary in morphol-ogy and pattern, including large-scale complex-type folds, flexural stratification, concave-up structures, faulting of small displacements accompanied by folding and brecciation. The slumps and associated syn-sedimentary structures are attributed to penecontemporaneous deformations of soft sediments (mostly silty mud) formed as a result of mass movement of unconsolidated and/or semi-consolidated substrate following an earthquake event. The occurrence of the earthquake event deposits supports the current view that the Sydney Basin was located in a back-arc setting near the New England magmatic arc on an active continental margin during the Middle Permian.

An ecologically mixed brachiopod fauna from Changhsingian deep-water basin of South China: consequence of end-Permian global warming

The Late Permian Shaiwa Group of the Ziyun area of Guizhou, South China is a deep-water facies succession characterized by deep-water assemblages of pelagic radiolarians, foraminifers, bivalves, ammonoids and brachiopods. Here we report 20 brachiopod species in 18 genera from the uppermost Shaiwa Group. This brachiopod fauna is latest Changhsingian in age and dominated by productides. The palaeoecologic and taphonomic analysis reveals that the brachiopod fauna is preserved in situ. The attachment modes and substratum preference demonstrate that the Shaiwa brachiopod fauna comprises admixed elements of deep-water and shallow-water assemblages. The presence of the shallow-water brachiopods in the Shaiwa faunas indicates the involuntary settlement of shallow-water brachiopods. The stressed ecologic pressure, triggered by warming surface waters, restricted ecospace and short food sources, may have forced some shallow-water elements to move to hospitable deep-water settings and others to modify their habiting behaviours and exploit new ecospace in deep-water environments. We infer that the end-Permian global warming and subsequent transgression event may have accounted for the stressed environmental pressure in the shallow-water communities prior to the end-Permian mass extinction.

End-Permian mass extinction pattern in the northern peri-Gondwanan region

The Permian-Triassic extinction pattern in the peri-Gondwanan region is documented biostratigraphically, geochemically and sedimentologically based on three marine sequences deposited in southern Tibet and comparisons with the sections in the Salt Range, Pakistan and Kashmir. Results of biostratigraphical ranges for the marine faunas reveal an end-Permian event comparable in timing with that known at the Meishan section in low palaeolatitude as well as Spitsbergen and East Greenland in northern Boreal settings although biotic patterns earlier in the Permian vary. The previously interpreted delayed extinction (Late Griesbachian) at the Selong Xishan section is not supported by our analysis. The end-Permian event exhibits an abrupt marine faunal shift slightly beneath the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) from benthic taxa- to nektic taxa-dominated communities. The climate along the continental margin of Neo-Tethys was cold before the extinction event. However, a rapid climatic warming event as indicated by the southward invasion of abundant warm-water conodonts, warm-water brachiopods, calcareous sponges, and gastropods was associated with the extinction event. Stable isotopic values of δ13Ccarb, δ13Corg and δ18O show a sharp negative drop slightly before and during the extinction interval. Sedimentological and microstratigraphical analysis reveals a Late Permian regression, as marked by a Caliche Bed at the Selong Xishan section and the micaceous siltstone in the topmost part of the Qubuerga Formation at the Qubu and Tulong sections. The regression was immediately followed by a rapid transgression beneath the PTB. The basal Triassic rocks fine upward, and are dominated by dolomitic packstone/wackestone containing pyritic cubes, bioturbation and numerous tiny foraminifers, suggesting that the studied sections were deposited during the initial stage of the transgression and hence may not have been deeply affected by the anoxic event that is widely believed to characterise the zenith of the transgression.

Artinskian-Kungurian (Early Permian) brachiopod faunas from the Tarim Basin, Northwest China, part 1: biostratigraphy and systematics of productida