Microbial reefs in eastern Yangtze Platform, South China Block: the last golden age of stromatolites in the Ordovician

Abstract

In the eastern Yangtze Platform of South China Block, Tremadocian (Early Ordovician) stromatolites in southern Anhui Province occur along a palaeoenvironmental transect from the shallowest intra-platform setting through to deeper platform margin. The intra-platform and platform margin belts of Tremadocian rocks in the eastern platform are carbonate-dominated marine environments favourable for calcimicrobes. However, stromatolites are absent in siliciclastic-dominated slope facies. Shallower carbonate facies are represented by the upper member of the Lunshan Formation, composed of a hundred metres thickness of stromatolite-bearing carbonates. Such stromatolites at the Beigong section of Jinxian county are characterized by stratiform and dome-shaped laminations. Girvanella filaments are ubiquitous in thin sections. Crinoids grew on the surfaces of the microbialites. In contrast, towards the deeper carbonate platform margin, stromatolites in massive-bedded limestones of the upper member of Lunshan Formation of the Ma’anshan section at Shitai occur as dense columns of bindstones; macrofossils and bioclasts are rare in those stromatolites, indicating a lower energy and deeper marine setting. Water depth at the platform margin of the Ma’anshan section is interpreted as being above the base of the euphotic zone favorable for photosynthesis in the calcimicrobial community; however, benthic fauna notably declined. In contrast to shallower settings, in clastic-dominated locations interpreted as deposited in deeper water, stromatolites are absent, represented by the middle member of Dawuqian Formation at the Ziliqian section. This work, therefore, supports that Early Ordovician reef systems were still microbial-dominated, representing the last golden age of stromatolites.