Project Introduction

Project No.: IGCP 506

Short title of project: Marine and Non-marine Jurassic

Full title of project: Marine and Non-marine Jurassic: Global correlation and major geological events

Duration: 2005-2009
The Jurassic is an important period for the evolution of life and earth history, which witnesses the most significant global events in the geological history. In particular, the Jurassic deposits in Europe, Middle East and East Asia are the major formations for hydrocarbon resources, showing significant value for the world energy and mineral resources.

Rich and diverse fossils have been recorded in both marine and non-marine sequences. The biodiversity variation of such important fossil organisms is crucial for global correlation between marine and non-marine Jurassic deposits. In addition, the volcanic rocks (especially the tuffs) are also developed in the Jurassic of some areas (e.g. China, Hungary and India). Some significant works and many experiences on the Jurassic strata correlation have been so far accumulated. However, further refined correlation between marine and non-marine Jurassic, especially the boundaries of Triassic/Jurassic and Jurassic/Cretaceous has long been debated and not yet resolved in a global scale. Furthermore, our knowledge is still limited regarding to the major geological events as well as their record and potential correlation that happened during the Jurassic interval.

The aim of the present IGCP proposal includes: 1), to highlight and emphasis on the importance of marine and non-marine Jurassic for understanding the evolutionary trend of both life and earth history; 2), to provide a forum for enhancing the international cooperation for geologists and paleontologists who are interested in the Jurassic system; 3), to promote and produce a series of research results for the Jurassic system using multidisciplinary approaches; 4), to help and improve the public education for a complete and good understanding of the whole Jurassic world, especially those exclude the Jurassic dinosaurs.

This project will concentrate on the following three topics: 1). Marine and non-marine Jurassic correlations using multidisciplinary approaches for a global scale; 2). The recognition, definition and correlation of marine and non-marine Jurassic boundaries, including T/J and J/K boundaries as well as sub-boundaries within the Jurassic system (e.g. Lower/ Middle, Middle/ Upper Jurassic boundaries); 3). Major geological events in the Jurassic and their stratigraphical records, patterns and causes.

In summary, the projects will use the integrated multidisciplinary methods, including palaeontology, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, lithology including vocalic and sedimentology, geochemistry, isotopic dating and geophysical approaches, to solve the related problems of correlation between marine and non-marine Jurassic, which will cover the Triassic/Jurassic and Jurassic/Cretaceous boundaries and the major geological events. This project will provide more new data, candidate sections and refined evidences so as to promote the final recognition of several GSSP stratotypes for the Jurassic system. A series of field workshops, annual meetings, graduate student programs, symposiums and conferences will be organized. A special popular science book on the Jurassic life world will be published; a series of proceedings and scientific results will be published in international journals to enhance our knowledge on the integrated studies of the Jurassic system.