Sediments of carbonate gravity flows and terrigenous debris turbidites, and normal bathyal deposits were found at the Shaiwa Section, Ziyun County, Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Through grain size analysis of some typical sediments at this section, the changing patterns of the grain parameters and the grain size cumulations were recovered. Results show that the study area was deposited under turbidite control during the Late Permian period, which we also recognized at the outcrop section upon sedimentary characteristics of the sediments. In addition, fossils are abundant in the Upper Permian of the Shaiwa Section, including radiolarians, sponge spicules, bivalves, brachiopods, ammonoids and trace fossils. Radiolarians and siliceous sponge spicules are typical deep water assemblages. Bivalves are dominated by genera of Hunanopecten and Claraia , both showing deep water living characteristics. Ammonoids are composed of planktonic types, showing characteristics of smooth and flat shells. Brachiopods are dominated by a small and thin shelled assemblage, which are commonly flat in shape and usually of slight ornamentations on shells. In addition, trace fossils found at the Shaiwa Section are also common types of deep water facies. Thus, the fossil evidence of the Shaiwa Section also suggests a deep water environment, possibly from the bathyal slope to the basin margin facies, of the studied area during the Late Permian period.
The Permian-Triassic Boundary Stratigraphic Set (PTBST), characteristic of the GSSP section of Meishan and widespread in marine Permian-Triassic Boundary (PTB) sequences of South China, is used to trace and recognize the PTB in a continental sequence at Chahe (Beds 66f―68c). Diversified Permian plant fossils extended to the PTBST, and a few relicts survived above that level. Sporomorphs are dominated by fern spores of Permian nature below the PTBST, above which they are replaced by gymnosperm pollen of Triassic aspect. In the nearby Zhejue Section, the continental PTBST is charac- terized by the fungal 'spike' recorded in many places throughout the world. The boundary claybeds (66f and 68a,c) of the PTBST are composed of mixed illite-montmorillonite layers analogous with those at Meishan. They contain volcanogenic minerals such as β quartz and zircon. U/Pb dating of the upper claybed gives ages of 247.5 and 252.6 Ma for Beds 68a and 68c respectively, averaging 250 Ma. In con- trast to the situation in Xinjiang and South Africa, the sediment sequence of the Permian-Triassic tran- sition in the Chahe section (Beds 56―80) become finer upward. Shallowing and coarsening upward is not, therefore, characteristic of the Permian-Triassic transition everywhere. The occurrence of relicts of the Gigantopteris Flora in the Kayitou Fm. indicates that, unlike most marine biota, relicts of this pa- leophytic flora survived into the earliest Triassic. It is concluded that Bed 67 at Chahe corresponds to Bed 27 at Meishan, and that the PTB should be put within the 60-cm-thick Bed 67b④, now put at its base tentatively. This is the most accurate correlation of the PTB in continental facies with that in the marine GSSP.
YIN HongFu1, YANG FengQing2, YU JianXin2, PENG YuanQiao1, WANG ShangYan3 & ZHANG SuXin1 1 Laboratory of Biological and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
