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The Precambrian–Cambrian boundary in parts of Scandinavia and Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Valdemar Poulsen
Valdemar Poulsen
Affiliation:
Institute of Historical Geology and Palaeontology, University of Copenhagen, Ostervoldgade 10. DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
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Summary

The discovery of Ediacara type faunas and later the Tommotian fauna at levels below the supposed first appearance of trilobites has brought new life to the discussion of the formal position of the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary. The oldest shelly faunas are apparently restricted to a few favoured areas, whereas transition beds developed as quartz sandstones, mostly unfossiliferous apart from trace fossils, seem to have a much larger regional distribution. The sequences of quartz sandstones overlie a Precambrian crystalline basement of a much greater age or clastic sediments, in part tillites, and are in turn overlain by a variety of rocks containing olenellacean trilobites.

The lowering to the Cambrian boundary makes the correlation of the widespread marine sandstones below levesl with trilobites highly pertinent. The correlation of some such sandstones in Greenland and Scandinivia is discussed below. In this account the Tommotial Stage is regarded as the basal Cambrian stage.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 115 , Issue 2 , March 1978 , pp. 131 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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