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Stratigraphic sections in the Bogda Mountains, NW China, provide detailed records of late Permian–Early Triassic terrestrial paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution at the paleo-mid-latitude of NE Pangea. The sections are located in the Tarlong-Taodonggou, Dalongkou, and Zhaobishan areas, ~100 km apart, and ~5000 m in total thickness. An age model was constructed using seven high-resolution U-Pb zircon CA-TIMS dates in the Tarlong-Taodonggou sections and projected to sections in two other areas to convert the litho- and cyclo-stratigraphy into a chronostratigraphy. Sediments were deposited in braided and meandering streams, and lacustrine deltaic and lakeplain-littoral environments. A cyclostratigraphy was established on the basis of repetitive environmental changes for high-order cycles, stacking patterns of high-order cycles, and long-term climatic and tectonic trends for low-order cycles (LC). Sedimentary evidence from the upper Wuchiapingian–mid Induan Wutonggou LC indicates that the climate was generally humid-subhumid and gradually became variable toward a seasonally dry condition in the early Induan. Lush vegetation had persisted across the Permo–Triassic boundary into the early Induan. A subhumid-semiarid condition prevailed during the deposition of mid Induan–lower Olenekian Jiucaiyuan and lower Olenekian Shaofanggou LCs. These three LCs are largely continuous and separated by conformities and diastems. Intra- and inter-graben stratigraphic variability is reflected by variations in thickness, depositional system, and average sedimentation rate, and results in variable spatial and temporal stratigraphic resolution. Such stratigraphic variability is mainly controlled by paleogeographic location, depocenter shift, and episodic uplift and subsidence in the source areas and catchment basin. A changeover of plant communities occurred during the early Induan, postdating the end-Permian marine mass extinction. However, riparian vegetation and upland forests were still present from the mid Induan to early Olenekian, and served as primary food source for terrestrial ecosystems, including vertebrates. Correlation of the vascular plant evolutionary history from the latest Changhsingian to early Induan in the Bogda Mountains with those reported from Australia and south China indicates a diachronous floral changeover on Pangea. The late Permian–Early Triassic litho-, cyclo- and chrono-stratigraphies, constrained by the age model, provides a foundation for future studies on the evolution of continental sedimentary, climatic, biologic, and ecological systems in the Bogda region. It also provides a means to correlate terrestrial events in the mid-paleolatitudes with marine and nonmarine records in the other parts of the world.
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This content will become publicly available on August 26, 2026
Milankovitch paleoclimatic, tectonic, and sedimentary signals in late Permian-Early Triassic fluvial-lacustrine records, Bogda Mountains, NW China
The stratigraphic sections in the Bogda Mountains, Xinjiang, NW China, provide detailed records of the terrestrial paleoenvironments during the late Permian to Early Triassic time at the paleo-mid-latitude of NE Pangea. The South Taodonggou (STDG), Central Taodonggou (CTDG), South Tarlong (STRL) and North Tarlong (NTRL) sections are located in the Tarlong-Taodonggou half graben at the southern foothills of Bogda Mountains (Yang et al., 2010, 2021; Guan, 2011; Peng, 2016; Obrist-Farner and Yang, 2017; Fredericks, 2017; Zheng and Yang, 2020). Lake expansion and contraction, and fluvial peneplanation and deposition, occurred repetitively in the basin (Yang et al., 2007, 2010, 2021). This study carried out gamma analysis, gamma and astronomical tuning, and spectral analysis of the lithofacies and environmental series. The thicknesses of the STDG, CTDG, STRL, and NTRL sections are 282.9 m, 539.7 m, 872.2 m, and 826.1 m, respectively. The major lithofacies are conglomerate, sandstone, mudrock, carbonate rock, and paleosols (Yang et al., 2010, 2021). Gamma analysis generates facies-dependent thickness-time conversion factors (gamma values) to construct gamma-tuned time series (Kominz and Bond, 1990; Bond et al., 1991; Kominz et al., 1991), which are more realistic than the untuned thickness series. Positive and stable gamma values suggest that the assumption of a unique sedimentation rate for each facies is not violated. The sedimentation rates of individual facies ranged from 0.18 to 1.53 m/kyr in the STDG section, 0.13 to 2.43 m/kyr in the CTDG section, 0.29 to 1.03 m/kyr in the STRL section, and 0.3 to 1.09 m/kyr in the NTRL section with average rates of 0.33 m/kyr, 0.3 m/kyr, 0.44 m/kyr and 0.46 m/kyr, respectively. The average sedimentation rates of the STRL and NTRL sections are 1.5 times greater than those of the STDG and CTDG sections. This difference can be attributed to the accommodation space, with the STRL and NTRL sections situated on the axial subsidence and depositional center of the half graben, while the STDG and CTDG sections are on the ramp margin. The stratigraphic completeness of the four sections ranges from 32% to 57% as the ratio between depositional and total durations. Astronomical tuning mitigated the long-term impact of variable sedimentation rates. The gamma and astronomical tuning enhance the spectral resolution of the environmental series. Spectral analysis of the astronomical-gamma-tuned series of STDG, CTDG, STRL and NTRL sections reveal significant peaks ranging from 14.2 to 405 kyr, corresponding to Milankovitch cycles (Figure 1). The evolutive spectrograms of the STDG, CTDG, STRL and NTRL sections contain many peaks with varying magnitude and frequency persistency throughout the entire section, with notable differences between the lower and upper parts (Figure 1). Most fluvial and lacustrine high order cycles (HCs) have durations less than 14 kyr, while some have durations same as obliquity and precession index cycle periods. The high-frequency signals, representing these HCs, in the sub-Milankovitch bands in the spectra are interpreted as combination tones of the eccentricity and precession index cycles. These results suggest that the cyclic sedimentation of the fluvial-lacustrine cycles was predominantly controlled by Milankovitch paleoclimatic forcing with variable strength evident across the entire sections.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2317598
- PAR ID:
- 10634386
- Publisher / Repository:
- International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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