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GSA Connects 2023 Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Paper No. 210-11
Presentation Time: 10:50 AM

MARINOAN GLACIAL DIAMICTITE–CAP CARBONATE COUPLET FROM THE LATE NEOPROTEROZOIC KAKUL FORMATION: IMPLICATION FOR CRYOGENIAN-EDIACARAN BOUNDARY IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYA, NORTH PAKISTAN


KHAN, Malik1, PAN, Bing2, SUN, Xiaojuan2, AHMED, Shehryar3 and ZHU, Maoyan4, (1)University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District, Beijing, China, Beijing, 100864; State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China, (2)State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China, (3)State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District, Beijing, China, Beijing, 100864, (4)State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

The Cryogenian-Ediacaran (∼635 Ma) boundary is globally linked to the presence of well-defined cap carbonate that comprises a post-glacial succession related to the Marinoan snowball Earth glaciation. The near-global presence of glacial diamictite-cap carbonate (DCC) couplet together with their occurrence in low latitude regions became the central tenet of snowball Earth hypothesis suggesting that the glaciation was widespread. Unlike other regions, the scarcity of DCC succession in the Himalaya not only brings into question the global extent of the snowball Earth event but also caused ambiguities in regional Neoproterozoic stratigraphic framework across the Himalaya. Herein, we report the first occurrence of Marinoan DCC couplet, previously unknown from the basal Tanakki Member of the Kakul Formation exposed in the Hazara Basin, Western Himalaya in north Pakistan. Based on facies and stratigraphic analysis from two outcrops, DCC couplet are interpreted as glacial/post glacial succession. Further, the succession of sedimentary/lithological features combined with evidence of ubiquitous low δ13C values (ca. -3.2 to -5.8‰) through cap carbonate support its association with Marinoan-type cap carbonates elsewhere. This new data expands the paleogeographic limit of the end-Cryogenian glacial/post glacial sequence in the Western Himalaya, linked to the global scale Marinoan snowball Earth event. Also, this study allows us to refine the late Neoproterozoic stratigraphic framework of the Western Himalaya by describing the Cryogenian-Ediacaran boundary in the region. Finally, using end-Cryogenian DCC as tie lines, future studies focusing on the high resolution C-isotope profile of the overlying post-glacial strata can be incorporated into global δ13C composite curve which further helps to understand the global Ediacaran biogeochemical events from this region.

Keywords: Snowball Earth, Glacial diamictite, Cap carbonate, Carbon isotope, Neoproterozoic, Marinoan glaciation, Western Himalaya

Session No. 210

D17. Recent Advances in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Wednesday, 18 October 2023: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
329 (David L Lawrence Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-391452
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