Biostratigraphic Correlation of the Cambrian Succession Between Shandong Province, North China and the Taebaeksan Basin, Korea

Abstract

The Palaeozoic North China Platform is an epeiric platform developed on the Sino–Korean Craton. The Cambrian succession is superbly exposed in Shandong Province, which is located in the central part of the North China Platform. The Taebaeksan Basin, Korea displays a somewhat similar Cambrian succession to that of North China, and is known to have been situated at the eastern margin of the North China Platform, ca. 900 km from present-day Shandong Province. Although both regions have similar Cambrian trilobite faunal assemblages, the independently developed biozonal schemes have hampered a detailed correlation of the Cambrian strata of the two regions. Recent palaeontological and sedimentological studies in Shandong Province and the Taebaeksan Basin enable a detailed correlation to be made of the two regions. The biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic correlation of the two regions reveals that carbonate production was more active in Shandong Province than in the Taebaeksan Basin, and that the Cambrian Series 3 microbial carbonate-dominant facies appeared earlier in Shandong Province. The abrupt cessation of the microbial carbonate accumulation, followed by deposition of siliciclastic mud, also occurred earlier in Shandong Province than in the Taebaeksan Basin.