Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217

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Marine and Petroleum Geology

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Research paper

How quiet was the epeiric sea when the Middle Cambrian Zhangxia
Formation was deposited in SW Beijing, China?
De-Chen Su a, A.J. (Tom) van Loon b, *, Ai-Ping Sun a
a
State Key Lab of Continental Tectonics and Dynamics, Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China
b
Geocom Consultants, Valle del Portet 17, 03726 Benitachell, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Middle Cambrian Zhangxia Formation, 65 km southwest of Beijing City, was deposited in an epeiric
Received 31 October 2015 sea that extended over almost the entire North China palaeo-plate (including Korea). The depositional
Received in revised form conditions under which the limestones were deposited are commonly considered to have been quiet,
30 January 2016
although oolites indicating current and wave activity occur fairly frequently. The presence of a large (6 m)
Accepted 2 February 2016
Available online xxx
lens of breccia, embedded in oolite, raises the question, however, how quiet the depositional conditions
actually were. The lens is composed of a limestone breccia which occurs only rarely in the Zhangxia
Formation, but that is common in the Late Cambrian Chaomidian Formation.
Keywords:
Sliding
It appears that the large lens was deposited as an entity. This does not fit the commonly presumed
Limestone quiet depositional conditions of its host rock. Therefore it may be concluded that the lens was put in
Epeiric sea place by a special event. This event is interpreted to have been a form of mass movement, more
Middle Cambrian particularly sliding of a consolidated but not yet completely lithified breccia mass.
Zhangxia Formation Only once such a feature has been described before from an epeiric sea, remarkably enough from the
China Chaomidian Formation, at a distance of several hundreds of kilometres from the present study site.
Although this feature thus seems to be extremely rare, it is important as it indicates instable conditions.
Such instable conditions in epeiric seas have not commonly been recognized thus far, which implies that
our idea of the conditions in this environment need to be re-considered.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction commonly result in differential developments (often on the basis of

Limestones represent potential reservoir rocks, and are there-
fore not only the object of pure scientific research, but also for
economic reasons. The larger the limestone volume, the larger the
potential content of hydrocarbons, and more specifically oil. Epeiric
seas belong to the environments where accumulating limestones
tend to retain a roughly similar character over large distances,
sometimes over even more than 1000 km (Zhang, 2011;
Gilleaudeau and Kah, 2013). This makes them promising reservoir
rocks, the more so because the limestones in epeiric seas are
commonly devoid of abrupt lateral or vertical facies changes, but
rather show gradual transitions in both directions. This does not
imply, however, that these rocks always keep the same character-
istics in the sedimentary record, because diagenetic changes
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sudechen@cags.ac.cn (D.-C. Su), Geocom.VanLoon@gmail.com
(A.J. van Loon), sunaiping@cags.ac.cn (A.-P. Sun).
subtle differences in the original sediment), particularly concerning
their cementation, which largely influences their porosity and
permeability. It is therefore of great economic importance to un-
derstand which processes affect limestones in epeiric seas after
deposition, and how such processes take place. This includes pro-
cesses such as syn-, meta- and post-depositional processes like
storm-wave loading, overburden-induced water/sediment escape,
and differential lithification. Such processes are examples of how
and why the overall character of the limestones may change from
one place to another.
Here we analyse a feature (a slid down block) in the Middle
Cambrian Zhangxia Fm., which consists of limestones deposited in
an epeiric sea. The feature is too small to affect the reservoir
properties of the limestones, but it provides insight into a process
that takes place in epeiric seas and that is hardly known; it was
previously described only once (Van Loon et al., 2012), from the
Late Cambrian Chaomidian Formation, a limestone deposit that
accumulated in the same epeiric sea.
In the middle Cambrian, the entire North China Craton became

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2016.02.002
0264-8172/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
210 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217
an epeiric sea, which is also called the “North China Carbonate
Platform” (Feng et al., 2002a, b). A most significant sedimentary
feature during the middle Cambrian when the Zhanxia Fm. was
deposited was the extensive occurrence of alternating thick-
bedded (commonly 40e60 cm) oolitic limestones with thin-
layered (commonly 10e30 cm) marls (Feng et al., 2002a, b; Hou
et al., 2014). The sedimentary framework during the Late
Cambrian remained essentially the same, but the oolitic limestones
decreased upwards in significance, while so-called “bamboo brec-
cias” (with beds of usually 10e30 cm thick) (for details of this
peculiar breccia, see Van Loon et al., 2013) became the main sedi-
mentary features (Feng et al., 2002c).
The Late Cambrian Chaomidian Fm., which in turn overlies the
Gushan Formation and which was also deposited in the same
epeiric sea, has been studied in much more sedimentological detail
than the Zhangxia Fm., and it has become clear that quiet condi-
tions not always prevailed: some sections of the Chaomidian For-
mation (particularly the Jiulongshan section in Shandong Province:
see Chen et al., 2009a) contain more than 100 breccia layers. The
origin of a specific type of these breccias in the Chaomidian For-
mation, informally called ‘bamboo breccias’, has been investigated
in detail (Meng et al., 1986, 1997; Van Loon et al., 2013), and it has
become clear that the breccias were formed in situ, probably by
destruction of the upper semi-consolidated layers due to storm-
wave loading. The frequent occurrence of these breccia layers in-
dicates that the bottom sediments were commonly affected by
processes that cannot be considered to represent quiet conditions.
The Chaomidian Formation also appeared to house a feature
which had not been described earlier: the occurrence of an oolite
bed in which several lenses of breccia are embedded (Van Loon
et al., 2012). These breccia lenses were demonstrated to have
formed by the break-up of a consolidated but not yet lithified
breccia layer into fragments that slid downwards over the only
slightly inclined sedimentary surface. They came to rest on top of an
oolite layer that was still accumulating, so that the spaces between
the breccia lenses also consist of oolite; accumulation of the oolite
continued after the breccia lenses had come to rest, so that these
lenses are also covered by oolite, implying that they form entities
that are completely embedded within a single oolite layer.
The feature that we describe here seems identical: a large lens of
‘bamboo breccia’ hosted within oolitic limestone with in-
tercalations of thin-layered marl. The host rock does, however, not
belong to the Chaomidian Formation but to the Zhangxia Forma-
tion. The lens occurs a few dozens of metres below the boundary
between the Zhangxia and the Gushan Formations. This second
description of such a lens, hundreds of kilometres away from the
lenses described earlier, must be considered important as it implies
that the process responsible for the genesis of such lenses is,
though extremely rare, part of the processes that apparently can
affect epeiric sediments at different places and at different times,
shortly after deposition. This process was hitherto unknown, and
this new example provides some additional insight into the con-
ditions in epeiric seas.
1.1. Study area
The Cambrian is well exposed in the centre of the Western Hills
of the Beijing area where the study area is located (Fig. 1). The
Cambrian has been studied here for almost a century (e.g. Huang,
1927; Sun, 1957; Meng et al., 1986, 1997). Most of the research
focused, however, on the northern part of the area, due to the poor
accessibility of the southern part. The outcrop described in the
present contribution is situated close to the Taoist Shenglianshan
Park, which is situated about 65 km SW of Beijing City.
1.2. Geological setting
In North China, the Cambrian can be divided into three series,
but several classification schemes are still in use, even in the Beijing
area (Su et al., 2013). The most recent scheme was published in
2012 by the China Geology Survey (CGS); in this scheme, several
litho-units considered previously as separate formations, became
merged. Whatever scheme is preferred, it has no significant influ-
ence on the stratigraphy of the unit under study, because the
feature described here is stratigraphically included in the upper
part of the Zhangxia Formation (see Table 1).
Flooding of the North China palaeo-plate began in the Early
Cambrian (Feng et al., 2002a). The entire area thus turned into an
epeiric environment during the late Middle Cambrian, when the
Zhangxia Fm. accumulated (Feng et al., 2002b). According to
Metcalfe (2011, 2013), the whole area of North China, which was
actually located in the Sino-Australian faunal province from the
Early Cambrian to the Early Ordovician, was covered by this epeiric
sea.
As a rule, epeiric seas are characterised by predominantly quiet
depositional conditions (O'Connell et al., 2012; Simoes et al., 2015)
and by a relatively low relief of the sea bottom (Baker, 1981;
Po~ ldsaar and Ainsaar, 2015). Such conditions lead to low-energy
accumulation of sediments. Occasionally, however, the quiet con-
ditions can be interrupted by storm-generated waves that, if the
storm is strong enough, disturb the bottom of the shallow sea. The
North China Platform, on which the Zhangxia Formation and the
overlying Gushan and Chaomidian Formations were deposited, are
representative examples (Chen et al., 2009a, 2010). They accumu-
lated on a stable craton, the Sino-Korean Block (Meng et al., 1986),
and the Cambrian-Ordovician of the platform could consequently
develop as a thick succession of mixed siliciclastic and carbonate
deposits (Meng et al., 1986; Chough et al., 2010), depending on
whether (and how much) clastics were supplied from land masses.
In the Middle Cambrian, about 24 oolitic beaches of different sizes
were spread along the north China carbonate platform (Feng et al.,
2002b). It was described more recently that oolitic limestones were
widely distributed over almost the entire carbonate platform in the
time that the Zhangxia Fm. accumulated (Hou et al., 2014). These
oolitic limestones indicate that the water of the carbonate platform
was rather shallow (Feng et al., 2002b). After the deposition of the
Zhangxia Fm., oolitic limestones became less abundant, while the
marl content increased.
Commonly intraformational limestone breccias and conglom-
erates are formed on the platforms, either by waves affecting the
sea floor, or by intrastratal cracking due to cyclic wave loading,
probably during extreme storms (Chen et al., 2009a, 2011). Sec-
ondary, early-diagenetic processes such as soft-sediment defor-
mation (e.g., Bouchette et al., 2001; Chough et al., 2001; Kwon et al.,
2002; Chen et al., 2009a,b; Van Loon et al., 2013) can also
contribute to the breaking down of limestones to limestone
breccias.
2. Description of the breccia lens and its host sediment
As mentioned before, a large lens of ‘bamboo breccia’ is present
in the Zhanxia Fm., embedded in oolite. The (visible) length of the
lens is about 6 m, and its maximum thickness is 85 cm (Fig. 2).
These are, however, not the original dimensions: in contrast to the
lenses described earlier from the Chaomidian Formation (Van Loon
et al., 2012), the contact of this lens with the host sediment is - like
the host rock itself - strongly affected by pressure solution,
resulting in stylolites that might represent dissolved carbonates of
significant thickness. At the base of the lens, for instance, a remnant
of the breccia lens seems to penetrate the underlying limestone for
 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217 211

Fig. 1. Geological map of the southwestern Beijing Area (A) and simplified map of the palaeo-plates of China (B). Both maps are based on Ma (2002).

Table 1
Lithostratigraphy and regional lithology of the Cambrian.

Formations (and age) Main lithology 2012 scheme of the China

Geological Survey

Yeli Formation argillaceous ribbon limestone, normal limestone and dolomite Rests on conformity with Cambrian
(Ordovician: O1y)
Fengshan argillaceous ribbon limestone, bamboo breccia limestone; locally stromatolite bioherms Chaomidian Formation (roughly
Fm. þ Changshan Fm. Furongian in South China)
(Є3c þ f)
Gushan Fm. (Є3g) purple bamboo breccia, argillaceous ribbon limestone; locally stromatolite bioherms Gushan Fm.
Zhangxia Fm. þ Mainly thick-layered oolitic limestone interbedded with ribbon limestone and marl; usually some Merged into the Zhangxia Fm.
Xuzhuang Fm. calcareous siltstones in the bottom part; locally stromatolite bioherms
(Є2z þ x)
Maozhuang mainly purple silty shale and marl, interbedded with several layers of dolomite Mantou Fm.
Fm. þ Mantou Fm.
(Є2m)
Changping Fm. (Є1c) leopard limestone in the Changping District; dolomite in other areas. Zhushadong Fm.
Proterozoic Jingeryu Fm. thin-layered marl and shale
(Ptj)

about 10 cm, indicating that at least a vertical succession of 10 cm of
rock was dissolved at this place (Fig. 3); obviously it could even be
more. Stylolites are present all over the contact of the lens with the
host sediment (Fig. 4), but not inside the lens itself. This strongly
suggests that, when pressure solution took place, the state of the
lens (i.e. the composition and the degree of lithification) differed
significantly from the state of the host rock, and that the former
was clearly less susceptible to stylolitisation than the latter.
The rocks in which the lens under study here is embedded
consist mainly of oolitic limestone. The layers of this oolitic lime-
stone at the study site vary in thickness, from a few centimetres to
about a metre. The limestone beds are, on average, distinctly
212 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217
Fig. 2. Overview of the breccia lens embedded in oolitic limestone. The contact between the lens and the host sediment is irregular due to stylolitisation and is therefore indicated
only schematically (by a dashed white line).
Fig. 3. Limestone fragment of the lens penetrating downwards into the underlying
oolite, indicating strong stylolitisation. The pressure-solution contact between the
penetrating fragment and the oolite is indicated by a red line. Pen (14.5 cm) for scale.
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
thicker than those of the overlying Gushan and Chaomidian For-
mations. As the types of limestone in these formations do not differ
fundamentally, it must be concluded that the main difference in
depositional conditions of these three formations is that in the
oldest (Zhangxia) formation either the depositional rate was, on
average, higher, or that the subtle changes in depositional condi-
tions that resulted in thinner or thicker layers were less frequent. It
must therefore be deduced that no significant changes in deposi-
tional conditions took place during the accumulation of these three
formations. In other words: the lens in the Zhangxia Formation
must have originated under comparable conditions as those under
which the lenses in the Chaomidian Formation were formed (see
Van Loon et al., 2012).
The entire lens under study here consists of so-called bamboo
breccia (Chen et al., 2009a, 2010; Van Loon et al., 2013). The clasts
Fig. 4. Stylolitic contact between the lens and the parent material. A: Lower boundary.
B: upper boundary. Field book (17.5 cm high) for scale.
are platy: commonly with visible a- and b-axes of about 5e10 cm,
whereas the c-axes tend to be of the order of 2e15 mm (Fig. 5). The
breccia type that constitutes the lens is oligomict and has a marl-
stone matrix; some microbial infillings are present between some
of the clasts, but they do not form a biogenic framework. The clasts
consist of lime mudstone to wackestone (mainly micrite and
peloids, some bioclasts); the marlstone matrix is composed of
micrite, dolomite and some siliciclastics (clay minerals and very
fine quartz grains). The clasts, as far as visible in cross-section, show
often somewhat rounded edges (Fig. 6), pointing at a consolidated
but not yet lithified state when the breccia clasts were transported
over presumably very short distances. The fabric of the clasts
seems, at first sight, fairly chaotic, but Van Loon et al. (2013)
showed that the clasts are oriented according to flow lines that
existed when roughly vertical escape took place of pore-water/
fluidized-sediment mixtures (Fig. 7). For more details about the
 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217
Fig. 5. The typical ‘bamboo’ character of the breccia in the lens.
Fig. 6. Many clasts of the breccia show some rounded edges (the arrows indicate a few
examples). The individual clasts are on average about 1 cm thick.
genesis of the bamboo breccias, the reader is referred to the just-
mentioned publications.
213
Fig. 7. The fabric of the clasts in the lens, inherited from its parent sediment, points at
a pathway for the upward escape of a mixture of water and fluidized sediment. Pen
(14.5 cm) for scale.
3. Origin of the lens
Countless sedimentary bodies that are lens-shaped in cross-
section have been described and genetically analysed, often in
much detail. The most common bodies with such a shape are (1)
channel deposits, particularly in the case of relief inversion due to
differential compaction (Van Loon et al., 2012); (2) megaripples
(Martinius and Van den Berg, 2011); (3) slump masses (Martinsen,
2003), and (4) reefs or bioherms (Kiessling, 2003). Less common are
(5) lifted/transported sediment blocks (Van Loon and Wiggers,
1976) and (6) horizontal intrusions (sedimentary sills) (Hiscott,
1979; Parize and Fries, 2003; Whitmore and Strom, 2010). The
characteristics of the breccia lens under study can, however, not be
explained by invoking these mechanisms (which could not explain
either the origin of the breccia lenses in the Chaomidian Formation
in Shandong Province); the ‘Discussion’ section will pay attention to
the arguments.
The lens in the Zhangxia Formation has most aspects in com-
mon with those in the Chaomidian Formation, and it seems
therefore a good starting point for the analysis of the lens under
study to hypothesize a similar origin. There are, however, also some
differences between the Zhangxia lens and the Chaomidian lenses,
which have to be detailed.
The Chaomidian lenses have a peculiar shape that is lacking in
the Zhangxia lens: the best developed Chaomidian lenses have a
tear-like shape, which was one of the arguments for a transport
direction towards the thick ‘head’. The end of the ‘tear’ was a
gradually thinning of the breccia, resulting in an ever more thin-
ning tail and eventually ending in a horizon with some clasts with
compositions of both the breccia and the underlying limestone.
These characteristics are not present in the Zhangxia lens, which
shows irregular outer ends of the lens (Fig. 8), due to stylolitisation
214 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217
at the contact with the host sediment. Further, the larger Chao-
midian lenses are underlain by some kind of shear zone consisting
of fragmented material (of both the breccia lens and the underlying
material) positioned parallel to the bedding plane. Under the
Zhangxia lens such a shear zone, which indicates movement of the
lenses over a still not entirely lithified sedimentary surface, is
absent.
One can, however, not deduce from these differences that the
Zhangxia and Chaomidian lenses had different initial characteris-
tics: the severe pressure solution that has taken place all around the
Zhangxia lens (but particularly at its bottom), indicating that locally
carbonates with a minimum thickness of at least 10 cm have been
dissolved. Consequently, any possible tail, horizon with fragments
or shear zone can have disappeared by dissolution. As all other
characteristics of the Zhangxia and Chaomidian lenses are the
same, however, we feel that a similar origin is the most likely,
particularly because our observations cannot be explained satis-
factorily in another way.
We interpret the origin of the lens therefore as follows. Small
differences in height of the seafloor must have existed, if only
because of some stromatolite development. Relatively higher sites
are the most exposed to wave activity, with the consequence that,
at these ‘highs’ on the wave-affected bottom of the shallow sea,
breccias were formed most easily. These breccias could be trans-
formed into so-called bamboo breccias by the processes that have
been described in detail by Van Loon et al. (2013). At a site where
Fig. 8. The irregular outer ends of the lens. A: Right-hand end. B: left-hand end. Field
book (height 17.5 cm) and pen (14.5 cm) for scale.
such a bamboo breccia in a consolidated but not yet lithified state
had formed, instability occurred, possibly as a result of differential
loading by storm waves. In our opinion, an earthquake-induced
shock seems more likely, but no signs of tectonic activity have
been described from the epeiric sea in this area until now. What-
ever the instability may have caused, a fragment of the consoli-
dated breccia layer broke off. As the breccia had developed at a
relatively high point of the seafloor (see above), a very gentle
inclination of the seafloor existed, and the broken-off breccia
fragment started to slide down (see the Discussion section), coming
to rest where the inclination of the seafloor did no longer allow
further sliding.
One should keep in mind in this context that even an extremely
gentle slope is sufficient for mass transport (Gibert et al., 2005;
Moretti and Sabato, 2007; Alsop and Marco, 2011); examples of
slumping and sliding over near-horizontal sedimentary surfaces (in
other environments) have been described several times, also for
inclinations of less than 1 (e.g. García-Tortosa et al., 2011) and even
less than 0.25 (Field et al., 1982). Owen (1996) also demonstrated
very low-angle movement experimentally.
4. Discussion
Only one single breccia lens has been found in the Zhangxia
Formation thus far, and an unknown part of it has disappeared by
pressure solution. It seems therefore only appropriate to discuss
here some of the questionable aspects.
4.1. Possible other origins
Section 3 mentions several alternative explanations for the
genesis of the lens but rejected them all. The following reasons led
us to reject other options.
(1) An origin as a channel fill can be excluded for two main
observations: (a) the base of the lens is more or less hori-
zontal (though irregular because of stylolitisation) while the
top is convex. This cannot be ascribed to differential
compaction, because the host limestone will not have un-
dergone more compaction than the lens of the limestone
breccia, and (b) the irregular position of the breccia clasts is
not consistent with a channel infill.
(2) An origin as a megaripple can be excluded because (a) the
clasts should preferentially be orientated according to the
lee-side inclination, and (b) a megaripple with a length of
some 6 m is difficult to explain in the shallow environment of
an epeiric sea; moreover, no megaripples are found in this
part of the Zhangxia Formation.
(3) An origin as a slump mass is no feasible option, as slumping
includes rotational movement in a plastic (liquefied) state,
whereas the characteristics of the lens suggest a rigid (lith-
ified) behaviour of the breccia body when sliding down. The
orientation of the clasts according to an upwards directed
flowage pattern (due to the expulsion of a water/sediment
mixture) must have occurred when the sediment was still
unlithified, thus when the lens was still a part of its parent
limestone (cf. Van Loon, 1983).
(4) The breccia lenses are neither metazoan reefs nor microbial
mounds in origin, although some microbial infilling between
some of the clasts is present. These constitute, however,
minor components. Moreover, talus from a microbial mound
is unlikely to be composed of seemingly chaotically oriented
fragments.
(5) It is known that blocks of water-saturated sediment with a
mass comparable to that of water (e.g., water-saturated peat)
 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217 215

can be uplifted by waves, transported over some distance,

and deposited elsewhere (Van Loon and Wiggers, 1976), but
(semi)consolidated breccias are too heavy for such uplifting
and transport.
(6) An origin as a sedimentary sill (dike) is excluded because the
clasts would show a preferential orientation according to the
flow lines (like crystals carried along in an intruding
magmatic vein) whereas the clasts in the lens show other
orientations.

If the above six mechanisms were not responsible for the for-
mation of the breccia lens, another satisfactory explanation must
therefore be found to explain the various characteristics detailed
above. We came to the conclusion that the lens must have slid
down over a gently inclined slope. The argumentation for sliding as
the responsible process is as follows. The lens occurs as a body with
characteristics that are completely different from those of the host
oolite layer. Moreover, the size of the clasts inside the lens (order of
a decimetre) does not match the depositional conditions and en-
ergy level that were responsible for the accumulation of the oolite
layer. Considering the fact that the oolite is present under, above
and beside the lens, it must be deduced that the lens must have
been emplaced at its present site as a body that was derived from
somewhere else. The size of the lens (~6 m) is far too large to as-
sume transport by traction; it must therefore have been trans-
ported in the form of some kind of mass movement. As it does not
show any of the characteristics of slumping or low- or high-density
gravity flows, its transport must have taken place in the form of a
process where large bodies are transported in a consolidated or
lithified state as an entity. Such processes include rock fall (which
can be excluded in this distal part of an epeiric sea), transport as an
olistolith (which can be excluded because there are no indications
at all of a mudflow in which this olistolith might have been
transported), impact of a meteorite (which can be excluded
considering the composition of the lens), and sliding. Only this
latter process explains the various characteristics of the lens and its
context. Moreover, the comparable lenses described from the
Chaomidian Fm. (Van Loon et al., 2012), which were not affected by
pressure solution, showed several characteristics (tear shape, shear
layer underneath) that can be explained satisfactorily only by
sliding. It thus seems that this process must also be held respon-
sible for the emplacement of the lens in the Zhanxia Formation.

4.2. Breaking up of the parent breccia layer

An important question is which mechanism(s) triggered the

initial break-up and subsequent sliding of a part of the parent
breccia layer. Several mechanisms can do so in principle; they
include overloading, tsunamis, earthquakes, storms, and sea-level
fluctuations (Spence and Tucker, 1997; Kullberg et al., 2001;
Moretti and Sabato, 2007; Van Loon, 2009). No signs of a tsunami
are present, and the sediments below and above the host rock of
the breccia lens do not indicate rapid sea-level fluctuations. This Fig. 9. Schematic development of the breccia lenses (from Van Loon et al., 2012). A: a
leaves cyclic wave overloading by storm-induced waves or an breccia layer originates at the sea bottom. B: Initial break-up of the breccia layer, and
beginning of sliding of a broken-off fragment. C: Further break-up during sliding. D:
earthquake-induced seismic shock as the most likely trigger; wave-
Abrasion of the top of slid-down lenses at their final depositional site due to wave
induced cyclic overloading must have been common in the Chao- action. E: Burial of the lenses by ongoing accumulation of the host oolite.
midian Formation considering the frequent occurrence of brecci-
ated layers. It is therefore not unlikely that exceptionally large (and
thus deep-reaching) waves due to an exceptionally severe storm presumably the water was too deep for ‘normal’ storm waves to
fragmented the topmost limestone beds, eroded some parts and break up the topmost sediments. This makes it unlikely that even a
thus could attack the sides of the locally eroded layer with such a severe storm could initiate movement of (part of) the topmost
power that the consolidated layer started to move over the inclined sediment. It may therefore well be that an earthquake-induced
sedimentary surface. shock was the trigger.
The situation during deposition of the Zhangxia Formation was This leaves the question why only one slid-down breccia block is
different, however: there are hardly broken up limestone layers, so visible in the outcropping Zhangxia Fm. Most probably this is
216 D.-C. Su et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 72 (2016) 209e217
because it is an extremely rare feature: even if earthquakes
occurred, they may, as a rule, not have been sufficiently strong to
break up the topmost sediments (present-day observations indi-
cate that storms with a specific power/magnitude decrease expo-
nentially in number with increasing power/magnitude). Having no
other clues, we therefore consider both the breaking up of the
parent breccia layer and the subsequent sliding of the breccia block
(Fig. 9) as the probable results of an earthquake, though cyclic
overloading by waves during exceptionally heavy storms cannot be
fully excluded.
5. Conclusions
The breccia lens that is embedded in oolites of the Zhangxia Fm.
cannot be explained by normal depositional or deformational
processes. It is concluded that the lens represents a fragment of a
consolidated, possibly already lithified breccia layer, consisting of
both rounded and angular platy clasts, which slid down over a very
gently inclined sedimentary surface.
The successive stages of development can thus be summarised
schematically as follows. A limestone accumulated on a very gently
sloping part of the bottom of an epeiric sea. When partly consoli-
dated, it was broken up as a result of exposure to wave activity
during a severe storm. The clasts of the resulting breccia were,
when the layer was still only partly consolidated, re-orientated; the
re-orientation followed the flow lines of upward escaping mixtures
of water and sediment that had become fluidized, possibly as a
result of overpressurized pore water in underlying layers that were
still less consolidated. The result was a ‘chaotic breccia’ (see Van
Loon et al., 2013) (Fig. 9A). In the course of time this chaotic
breccia became lithified, initially only slightly. Part of this slightly
lithified breccia broke off, which can have been caused by storm-
wave loading (Fig. 9B), although an earthquake-induced seismic
should might be considered more likely (but no tectonic activity at
this place at this time has ever been reported). The broken-up
breccia part started sliding over the gently inclined sea bottom,
and during this sliding it may have been broken up into a number of
smaller fragments (Fig. 9C). When the bottom was no longer suf-
ficiently sloping, the block under study came to rest at a site where
an oolite was accumulating. Wave action abraded the block, which
thus obtained a lens shape (Fig. 9D). Finally, ongoing oolite accu-
mulation buried the lens, which thus became embedded in an
oolite.
Sliding of blocks is known from a wide variety of environments
in the sedimentary record; however, this feature has hardly been
mentioned earlier from an epeiric sea. The occurrence of such slid-
down blocks, although extremely rare, proves, however, that such a
low-relief submarine carbonate setting is, like its siliciclastic
counterparts, susceptible to mass transport. Apparently the epeiric
sea where the Zhangxia Fm. accumulated was not as quiet as
commonly presumed, with the consequence that limestones that
accumulated in epeiric seas may be less homogeneous e and
consequently more complex regarding their potential reservoir
characteristics - than previously expected.
Acknowledgements
De-Chen Su expresses his thanks to Ms Ai-Ping Sun, Mr Xu
Duanand, and Mr Rong-TaoGuo, who joined him when investi-
gating the Cambrian of the study area; Tom van Loon expresses his
gratitude to the Organizers and Sponsors of the 1st International
Palaeogeographical Conference (Beijing, September 2013), who
kindly provided the means to visit China.
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