The Late Triassic Sequence-Stratigraphic Framework of the Upper Yangtze Region, South China

In the transitional period between the Middle and the Late Triassic, the Indochina orogeny caused two tectonic events in South China: (1) the formation and uplift of the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt along the northern margin of the South China Plate, due to its collision with the North China Plate; and 2) the development of a 1300-km-wide intra-continental orogen in the southeastern part of the South China Plate, which led to a northwestward movement of the foreland thrust-fold zone. These tectonic events resulted in the ending of the Yangtze Platform, and were a stable paleogeographic factor from the Eidacaran to the end of the Middle Triassic. This platform was characterized by the widespread development of shallow-water carbonates. After the end of the Yangtze Platform, the upper Yangtze foreland basin (or Sichuan foreland basin) was formed during the Late Triassic and became a accumulation site of fluvial deposits that are composed of related strata of the Xujiahe Formation. In western Sichuan Province, the Xujiahe Formation overlies the Maantang Formation shallow-water carbonate rocks of the Xiaotangzi Formation siliciclastic rocks (from shelf shales to littoral facies). The sequence-stratigraphic framework of the Upper Triassic in the upper Yangtze foreland basin indicates a particular alluvial architecture, characterized by sequences composed of (1) successions of low-energy fluvial deposits of high-accommodation phases, including coal seams, and (2) high-energy fluvial deposits of low-accommodation phases, including amalgamated river-channel sandstones. The spatial distribution of these fluvial deposits belonging to the Xujiahe Formation and its relative strata is characterized by gradual thinning-out, overlapping, and pinching-out toward both the east and south. This sedimentary record therefore expresses a particular sequence-stratigraphic succession of fluvial deposits within the filling succession of the foreland basin. The sequence-stratigraphic framework for the Upper Triassic in the Upper Yangtze region provides a record of the end of the Yangtze Platform and the formation of the upper Yangtze foreland basin.