Playa lake and sheetflood deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Jindong Formation, Korea: Occurrences and palaeoenvironments

Abstract

Lake model of the Upper Cretaceous Jindong Formation in Korea was established on the basis of sedimentological and palaeobiological records of the playa lake and sheetflood deposits and their palaeoenvironmental implications. The playa lake and sheetflood deposits of the Jindong Formation are characterized by the common presence of traces of vanished evaporites, complicated polygonal desiccation cracks and rainprints, the pedogenic carbonate development, and the preservation of invertebrate traces and dinosaur and bird tracks. The traces of vanished evaporites including halite and sulphate evaporite occur as evaporite pseudopmorphs and moulds. The occurrence of all of the evaporite minerals as traces suggests that flooding stages persisted much longer than evaporation and desiccation stages. Invertebrates, birds, and dinosaurs inhabited the playa lake environment of the Upper Cretaceous Jindong Lake. The Jindong Lake formed by the combination of humid source area and arid depositional site due to an orographic effect in fault-bounded basin. Extensive development of the playa lake and sheetflood deposits with evaporite mineral casts and very limited association of shoreline deposits in the Jindong Formation are characteristic of closed lake, and the Jindong Lake is compared to a lake formed in partly drained closed basin. The aggradation of mudflat deposits indicates continued subsidence of the basin and continuation of an underfilled lake basin. The Jindong Lake expanded and stabilized as a playa lake surrounded by dry to saline mudflats, and palaeoclimate and subsidence rates changed little throughout the period of the Jindong Lake development.