Geology of Fujian
Encyclopedia
Fujian is a south eastern coastal province of China.
The eastern half of the Fujian province of China is largely covered by Jurassic Period acid volcanic rocks and Cretaceous tuffaceous sandstone. However there are rocks of a variety of ages including the oldest around 1800 Ma (million years old). The deposits from the Triassic are predominantly on land, where as the older ones are marine sediments.
Prior to the Ediacaran the continent was assembled from several terranes. In the early Paleozoic the environment was a continental slope. In the later Paleozoic the area was a platform, and from Mesozoic till now it has been affected by the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
The Mayuan Group from middle Proterozoic consists of muscovite schist and includes leptite, marble
and graphite
beds.
The Wudan Formation in northwest Fujian contains graywacke and quartz rich sandstone.
The Dikou Formation in northeast Fujian contains biotite leptite.
The Dingwuling Formation in western Fujian.
Longbeixi Formation on eastern Fujian
Nanyan Group in southwest has grey phyllite.
Huanglian Formation in southwest consists mostly of silicalite. The northwest and east areas are not well differentiated in the Ediacaran, but contain metamorphic rocks such as siltite leptite and actinolite
schist.
The Dongkengkou Group contains metamorposed calcarious sandstone. It contains Protospongia
fossils. Beds are up to 1 km thick.
The Luofengxi Group contains metamorphosed sandstone in which Leiomarginata and Conochitina incerta fossils have been found.
During the Silurian and early Devonian an unconformity
formed.
.
The Huanlong Formation contains clastic limestone and dolomite in the southwest region. |There are Fusulid fossils such as Profusulinella, Fusulinella, and Fusulina.
The Chuanshan Formation has beds of limestone and dolomite. Montiparus, Titicites and Pseudoschwagerina fossils are found in it.
Meanwhile in the Upper Carboniferous mudstone formed in the northeast of the province. Fossils there include Neospirifer a brachiopod
and Neostaffella.
The Wenbishan Formation is marine mudstone with phosphate and pyrite nodules. Ammonite fossils such as Altudoceras
, Shouchangdoceras are there, and Haydenella a brachipod is also found.
The Tongziyan Formation has sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
The upper Permian Cuipingshan Formation has thin beds of sandstone and siltstone and coal. The Dalong Formation has mudstone with limestone lenses in the west. The Changxing formation is primarily limestone.
The Zhangping formation is mostly purple red siltstone.
The Changling Formation contains more volcano derived particles.
Nanyuan Formation is the main volcanic strata with up to 8 km thick of intermediate and acid volcanic lava, and tuff. A dinosaur Rhynchosaurus
orientalis fossil has been found in this.
The Bantou Formation has paper shale and mudstone in the west, and tuff and acid volcanic rock in the east.
In the Upper Cretaceous the Shaxian Formation, the Chishi Formation with purple red sandstone is in the west, and Shiniushan Formation contains conglomerate and volcanic particles dated from 88-91 Ma.
and dacite
rich in potassium, from Late Jurassic
to Early Cretaceous
. The magmas were formed in an environment first under compression, and later under tension. The East Fujian-Taiwan volcanic rocks in Fujian formed in a continental shelf environment, with alkali basalt erupted around 11.65 Ma on the coast near Fotan.
Nanpingite comes from the Nanping pegmatite in Zenghe County. It has formula CsAl2(AlSi3O10)OH,F)2 being a cesium mica.
Chiluite was found in the Chilu molybdenum deposit in Fu'an
County. The formula is Bi3TeMoO10.5.
with 1200 square meters of space.
A journal called Geology of Fujian (Fujian Dizhi 福建地質) is published by the Fujian Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration Geoscience and publishes four issues per year.
Geology parks have been set up at Taining. The Zhangzhou Coastal Volcano National Geology Park was established in 2001.
. The sea floor formed by sea floor spreading starting in the Jurassic and continuing to the Pliocene period. The Taiwan Strait
off the south coast is actually continental crust beneath.
.
The eastern half of the Fujian province of China is largely covered by Jurassic Period acid volcanic rocks and Cretaceous tuffaceous sandstone. However there are rocks of a variety of ages including the oldest around 1800 Ma (million years old). The deposits from the Triassic are predominantly on land, where as the older ones are marine sediments.
Prior to the Ediacaran the continent was assembled from several terranes. In the early Paleozoic the environment was a continental slope. In the later Paleozoic the area was a platform, and from Mesozoic till now it has been affected by the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Stratigraphy
The Badu Group from the Lower Proterozoic consists of biotite schist and gneiss around 1800 Ma and is found noprth of Songxi.The Mayuan Group from middle Proterozoic consists of muscovite schist and includes leptite, marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
beds.
Ediacaran
The Louziba Group in the south west of Fujian consists mostly of sandstone.The Wudan Formation in northwest Fujian contains graywacke and quartz rich sandstone.
The Dikou Formation in northeast Fujian contains biotite leptite.
The Dingwuling Formation in western Fujian.
Longbeixi Formation on eastern Fujian
Nanyan Group in southwest has grey phyllite.
Huanglian Formation in southwest consists mostly of silicalite. The northwest and east areas are not well differentiated in the Ediacaran, but contain metamorphic rocks such as siltite leptite and actinolite
Actinolite
Actinolite is an amphibole silicate mineral with the chemical formula .-Etymology:The name actinolite is derived from the Greek word aktis , meaning "beam" or "ray", because of the mineral's fibrous nature...
schist.
Cambrian
The Lintian group contains grey metamorphosed sandstone, phyllite and slate up to 4 km thick in western Fujian.The Dongkengkou Group contains metamorposed calcarious sandstone. It contains Protospongia
Protospongia
Protospongia is a genus of sponge known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale....
fossils. Beds are up to 1 km thick.
Ordovician
The Weifang Group contains dark phyllite and limestone with Didimograptus graptolite fossils.The Luofengxi Group contains metamorphosed sandstone in which Leiomarginata and Conochitina incerta fossils have been found.
During the Silurian and early Devonian an unconformity
Unconformity
An unconformity is a buried erosion surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval of time before deposition of the younger, but the term is used to describe...
formed.
Devonian
The Devonian saw terrestrial deposits. The Tianwadong Formation contained thick conglomerate beds with plant fossils like Cyclostigma and Leptophloem rhombicum. The Taozikeng Formation also contained conglomerate and included Sublepidodendrum fossils.Carboniferous
The Lindi Formation had more conglomerate and sandstone, with traces of limestone and coal. Plant fossils include Rhodeopteridium and neuropterisNeuropteris
Neuropteris is an extinct seed fern that existed in the Carboniferous period, known only from fossils.Major species include Neuropteris loschi....
.
The Huanlong Formation contains clastic limestone and dolomite in the southwest region. |There are Fusulid fossils such as Profusulinella, Fusulinella, and Fusulina.
The Chuanshan Formation has beds of limestone and dolomite. Montiparus, Titicites and Pseudoschwagerina fossils are found in it.
Meanwhile in the Upper Carboniferous mudstone formed in the northeast of the province. Fossils there include Neospirifer a brachiopod
Brachiopod
Brachiopods are a phylum of marine animals that have hard "valves" on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection...
and Neostaffella.
Permian
The Qixia Formation contains dark grey chert interbedded with limestone.The Wenbishan Formation is marine mudstone with phosphate and pyrite nodules. Ammonite fossils such as Altudoceras
Altudoceras
Altudoceras is a genus belonging to the Pseudogastrioceratinae subfamily. They are an extinct group of ammonoid, which are shelled cephalopods related to squids, belemnites, octopuses, and cuttlefish, and more distantly to the nautiloids.-References:...
, Shouchangdoceras are there, and Haydenella a brachipod is also found.
The Tongziyan Formation has sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
The upper Permian Cuipingshan Formation has thin beds of sandstone and siltstone and coal. The Dalong Formation has mudstone with limestone lenses in the west. The Changxing formation is primarily limestone.
Triassic
The Triassic contains Xikou, Xiwei, Anren Dakeng Formations followed by a partial unconformity, then Wenbinshan, and Jiaokeng Formation containing conglomerate. The Xikou Formation in Southwest Fujian, consists of a fine grained turbidite. In the areas near Longyan Yongding and Zhangping there are large blocks of oolitic limestone embedded.Jurassic
The Lishan formation contains sandstone and some acid volcanic particles.The Zhangping formation is mostly purple red siltstone.
The Changling Formation contains more volcano derived particles.
Nanyuan Formation is the main volcanic strata with up to 8 km thick of intermediate and acid volcanic lava, and tuff. A dinosaur Rhynchosaurus
Rhynchosaurus
Rhynchosaurus is a genus of rhynchosaur that lived during the Middle Triassic Period. It lived in Europe. It was related to the archosaurs, but not within that group. The species of Rhynchosaurus are R. articeps and R. brodiei. Michael Benton had named a third species, R...
orientalis fossil has been found in this.
The Bantou Formation has paper shale and mudstone in the west, and tuff and acid volcanic rock in the east.
Cretaceous
Hekou Formation contains purple-red sandstone and green grey siltstone in the west. Contemporaneously in the east basalt, dacite, rhyolite and quartz trachyte along with sediments derived from these make up the Shimaoshan Group.In the Upper Cretaceous the Shaxian Formation, the Chishi Formation with purple red sandstone is in the west, and Shiniushan Formation contains conglomerate and volcanic particles dated from 88-91 Ma.
Neogene
In the Paleogene surviving deposits were not formed. The Fotan Group formed with Basalt and conglomerate.Volcanic rocks
Fujian has two volcanic rock provinces. The East Fujian-Taiwan volcanic rock region includes a strip along the coast. The rest of the province falls into the Zhejiang-Fujian-Guandong volcanic rock region. Both are part of the South China techtono-magmatic province. The Zhejiang-Fujian-Guandong volcanic rocks are mostly rhyoliteRhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
and dacite
Dacite
Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...
rich in potassium, from Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...
to Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...
. The magmas were formed in an environment first under compression, and later under tension. The East Fujian-Taiwan volcanic rocks in Fujian formed in a continental shelf environment, with alkali basalt erupted around 11.65 Ma on the coast near Fotan.
Intrusives
Numerous granitic intrusions took place along with the volcanoes in the Jurassic and Cretaceous.Minerals
A number of minerals were discovered in Fujian or have their type locations there.Nanpingite comes from the Nanping pegmatite in Zenghe County. It has formula CsAl2(AlSi3O10)OH,F)2 being a cesium mica.
Chiluite was found in the Chilu molybdenum deposit in Fu'an
Fu'an
Fu'an or Fu An is a county-level city in the Ningde prefecture level city, in northeast Fujian province, PRC, some 150 km away from the provincial capital Fuzhou.-Economy:Fu'an is known for its tea production...
County. The formula is Bi3TeMoO10.5.
Study
The Fujian Geological Museum is in FuzhouFuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
with 1200 square meters of space.
A journal called Geology of Fujian (Fujian Dizhi 福建地質) is published by the Fujian Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration Geoscience and publishes four issues per year.
Geology parks have been set up at Taining. The Zhangzhou Coastal Volcano National Geology Park was established in 2001.
Offshore
Offshore from the province northern coast is the East China SeaEast China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...
. The sea floor formed by sea floor spreading starting in the Jurassic and continuing to the Pliocene period. The Taiwan Strait
Taiwan Strait
The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait, formerly known as the Black Ditch, is a 180-km-wide strait separating Mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast...
off the south coast is actually continental crust beneath.
Structure
Faults and structure lines are roughly parallel to the coast, northeast-southwest, and reflect interaction with the Pacific PlatePacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
.