From Basin Black Shales to Platform Carbonate Rocks: A Study on Sequence Stratigraphy for the Lower Cambrian of the Upper‐Yangtze Region in South China

Abstract: In the Upper‐Yangtze region, especially in Guizhou Province and its adjacent areas, the Lower Cambrian is well developed and is marked by a succession from black shales of the basin facies to carbonate rocks of the platform facies. The drowning event of the platform occurring at the turn from Sinian to Cambrian resulted in a set of black shales, i.e. the Niutitang Formation, which makes up the bottom part of the Lower Cambrian. With the shoaling of the sedimentary environment, a set of carbonate rocks, i.e. the Qingxudong Formation, was formed in the top part of the Lower Cambrian. Thus, the Lower Cambrian in the study area makes up one second‐order sequence that can be further subdivided into five third‐order sequences, and forms a regularly cyclic succession of transgression‐regression. There is a regularly vertical stacking pattern for the third‐order sequences in the second‐order sequence. From bottom to top, the succession of the “CS (condensed section) +HST (high‐stand system tract)” of the third‐order sequences is changed into the succession of the “TST (transgressive system tract)+CS+HST”. Correspondingly, the drowning‐type sequence boundary is changed into the exposure‐type one. Therefore, both the second‐order and the third‐order sequences have similar sedimentary‐facies architectures. A concomitant with these temporal changes, the Lower Cambrian with a thickness of 1000 m that contains five third‐order sequences is changed into a condensed succession that cannot identify third‐order sequences toward the southeast with the deepening of the sedimentary environment. According to the elementary features of the third‐order sequences, i.e. the regularity o sedimentary‐facies successions in space and the synchronism of sedimentary‐environment changes in time, the detailed division of the third‐order sequences at main logged sections in different paleogeographical background becomes the basis to establish the sequence‐stratigraphic framework that can demonstrate two types of facies‐changing surface and two types of diachronism in the stratigraphic records. This sequence‐stratigraphic framework shows a growing process of the carbonate platform from the base of the condensed succession formed by black shales of basin facies. Resulting from the rapid transgression at the turn from Sinian to Cambrian the ecological space became open, which formed the antecedent condition of paleogeographical setting for “the Cambrian Biological Explosion”. Ultimately, the genetic relationship between the depositional events and the biological‐diversity events is very complex and there remain lots of problems that need further research in the future.