Episodic Carbonate Deposits on the Triassic Continental Slope in Southern China

Episodic carbonate deposits on the Triassic continental slope in southern China are mainly com-posed of gravity-flow limestones and contourite limestones. Gravity-flow limestones were well developed in thelower and middle Yangtze area in the Early Triassic and in the Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi area in the Early and Mid-dle Triassic. Five fundamental types of gravity-flow limestones are recognized: slide limestone, debris-flow lime-stone, grain-flow limestone. turbidite limestone and rockfall limestone. They form six types of assemblage beds:slide-debris-flow limestones, slide-debris-flow-turbidite limestone, slide-debris-flow-grain-flow-turbidite lime-stone, rockfall-debris-flow limestone, debris-flow-turbidite limestone, and debris-flow-grain-flow-turbidite lime-stone. The first two were formed mainly in the Early Triassic slopes. The Middle Triassic slopes were charcterizedby widespread rockfall limestone. Growth faults, storms, earthquakes and oversteepened slopes are considered to bethe probable triggers of the gravity flows. Contourite limestones appear as isolated lenses or thin and ripple-laminated beds of grainstones occurring inhemipelagic argillaceous limestones and lime mudstones. They were formed at the base of the slope. Palaeocurrentdata indicate that the contour currents are perpendicular to the slope. The contourite limestones are not as common asthe gravity-flow ones, but they are important in the reconstruction of the palaeogeographical and palaeotectonic set-tings in southern China.