Disused Paleogene Regional Stages from Belgium: Montian, Heersian, Landenian, Paniselian, Bruxellian, Laekenian, Ledian, Wemmelian and Tongrian
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GEOLOGICA BELGICA (2006) 9/1-2: 203-213 DISUSED PALEOGENE REGIONAL STAGES FROM BELGIUM: MONTIAN, HEERSIAN, LANDENIAN, PANISELIAN, BRUXELLIAN, LAEKENIAN, LEDIAN, WEMMELIAN AND TONGRIAN Geert DE GEYTER1, Ellen DE MAN2, Jacques HERMAN3, Patric JACOBS4, Thierry MOORKENS5, Etienne STEURBAUT6 & Noël VANDENBERGHE7 (1 fi gure) 1. Geological Survey of Belgium, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Jennerstraat 13, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. 2. Geological Survey of Belgium, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. 3. Geological Survey of Belgium, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Jennerstraat 13, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. 4. Ghent University, Department of Geology and Soil Science, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. 5. Kruishofstraat 18, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected] 6. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B-1000 Brussels & KULeuven, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. 7. KULeuven, Historische Geologie, Redingenstraat 16, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected]. ABSTRACT. An overview of nine disused Paleogene regional stages from Belgium is presented. Some of these re- gional chronostratigraphic units were already brought into use in the nineteenth century, but are nowadays considered ill defi ned and of no use in the light of the modern stratigraphic concepts. An overview of their defi nition and history is given, together with the argumentation for the abandonment of each unit and its present status. S e disused chro- nostratigraphic units belong to the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene series. KEYWORDS: Belgium, Paleogene, regional stages, chronostratigraphy, stratigraphy Reference to this paper: De Geyter, G., De Man, E., Herman, J., Jacobs, P., Moorkens, T., Steurbaut, E. & Vanden- berghe, N., 2006. Disused Paleogene regional stages from Belgium: Montian, Heersian, Landenian, Paniselian, Bruxel- lian, Laekenian, Ledian, Wemmelian and Tongrian. In Dejonghe, L., ed., Current status of chronostratigraphic units named from Belgium and adjacent areas, Geologica Belgica, Brussels, 9/1-2: 203-213. An overview of the localities after which the disused Paleogene regional stages in northern Belgium were named is shown in Figure 1. 3°E The Netherlands 5°E 1. Montian (Thierry MOORKENS) Southern North Sea 1.1. Defi nition and history S e Montian stage has been introduced by Dewalque 51°N Belgium 7 6 (1868, p.185) based on a limestone section observed in a 8 5 3 2 9 temporary outcrop, the water pit “Puits Goffi nt”, located France N in the neighbourhood of the town of Mons. S e same 1. Mons 6. Laken 2. Heers 7. Lede section had previously been used for the description of 1 3. Landen 8. Wemmel 030km 4 4. Mont Panisel 9. Tongeren the Mons Limestone (“Calcaire de Mons”) by Cornet & 5. Brussels Briart (1865), a rock unit characterised by its rich content Figure 1. Overview of the localities after which the disused of molluscs, which had a strong general Cenozoic aspect. Paleogene regional stages in northern Belgium were named. S e Cenozoic age of the deposit was a main reason to Inset: southern North Sea Basin. introduce the new stage, as at that time the (previously 204 DE GEYTER, DE MAN, HERMAN, JACOBS, MOORKENS, STEURBAUT & VANDENBERGHE erected) Danian stage (Desor, 1847) was still considered (i.e. the last large evolutionary stage - with average test to be of Late Cretaceous age, and was therefore thought sizes (maximal diameter) exceeding 185 µm - of the G. to be older than this newly erected Montian stage. daubjergensis lineage, which is based on the gradually in- creasing test size of this group with time, Hansen, 1970). To this original defi nition of the Montian stage, as ex- S e incoming of these same taxa has also been observed clusively based on its type section in the Puits Goffi nt, in the transitional strata between the Ciply Calcarenites some authors later suggested to add older and younger and the Mons Limestone of the Mons Basin (Moorkens, deposits to the unit stratotype. Briart & Cornet (1880) 1982), thus at the stratigraphic level which approximately suggested to expand the original limits of the Montian correlates with the base of the Puits Goffi nt section. Fur- stage by adding the overlying fresh water deposits called thermore, the transition of the Ciply Calcarenites to the “Calcaire lacustre à Physa” (“Continental Montian” of Mons Limestone in Belgium is also characterised by the authors, a rock unit now better known under the name incoming of some warm water taxa of benthic foraminifera, “Marls and Limestones of Hainin”), and the underlying such as Lamarckina naheolensis, L. limbata, and Scarifi catina Mons Limestone. Cornet & Briart (1877a, 1877b) also reinholdi (Moorkens, 1982). S ese taxa thus have regional suggested to add the rock unit “Calcaire de Cuesmes correlative value in Belgium and adjacent areas. à grands Cérithes”, which is now considered to be an equivalent of the Ciply Calcarenites (originally called Already during early correlations between the Danian and “Tuff eau de Ciply”). S ese viewpoints have been defended Montian stratotypes and studies on other classic sections, for a long time, such as by Marlière (1977). it has been suggested by some authors (as reviewed by Berggren, 1971, pp. 702-710) that the Montian could 1.2. Why the Montian is not an international stage better be considered as a substage of the Danian, corre- sponding to its upper part, and thus roughly equivalent Later (micro-)paleontological studies, as discussed in with the “Late Danian”. S e arguments for and against detail by Moorkens (1982), proved that the above deposits accepting the Montian as a regional substage will be are indeed of early Cenozoic age, but that they are lateral discussed in a forthcoming paper (when reviewing the time equivalents of the middle and late parts of the previ- new results obtained in the AEC 1827 cored borehole). ously described Danian, which has now been accepted as S is well is located at approximately 2 km to the west the basal Cenozoic stage of global stratigraphy, ranging of the Puits Goffi nt, and appears to be stratigraphically between 65.5 and 61.7 Ma (Gradstein et al., 2004). Only somewhat more complete than the type section, and than the freshwater deposits (Hainin Marls and Limestones), the neighbouring Mons 1969 cored borehole section, directly overlying the Mons Limestone in parts of the which was studied by Moorkens (1982). Mons Basin, may – entirely, or at least in their younger part – be younger than the top of the Danian stage (= base of the Selandian stage), as now considered in Den- 2. Heersian (Geert DE GEYTER) mark. However, the GSSP for the Danian-Selandian boundary has so far not been defi nitely designated, and 2.1. Defi nition and history its suggested age (61.7 Ma, Gradstein et al.2004) is thus still preliminary. S e term Heersian (“Système heersien”) was introduced by Dumont (1851) to separate the glauconitic sands (“Glau- Concerning the validity of the Montian stage, one should conie de Marets”) and marls from overlying stiff clays also bear in mind that the previously poor (and presently and sands, previously all grouped in the Landenian (Du- not existing) outcrop of the Montian stratotype section mont,1839). It was named after Heers, a small village in NE (as indicated in the original defi nition) would make it an Belgium, 20 km NW of Liège. S e lithostratigraphic term invalid stage for international use. “Heers Formation” was introduced by Moorkens (1973, 1982). It was described more in detail by S ielens (1871), 1.3. The status of the name De Saporta & Marion (1873, 1877), Vincent (1873), Gos- selet (1874), Rutot (1884), Gulinck & Hacquaert (1954), For the above reasons the Montian is not acceptable as Herman (1972, 1977a), Roche (1973), Schumacker-Lam- an international stage. However, when considering only bry (1978), De Geyter (1981) and Steurbaut (1998). its original defi nition (in which it is limited to the Mons Limestone section, as observed in the Puits Goffi nt), 2.2. Why the Heersian is not an international stage this ex-Montian time unit as defi ned in Belgium, would roughly represent the same time span as that of the “Late When introducing the Heersian, Dumont (1851) no Danian”, such as now considered in Denmark. Indeed, this longer considered the type deposits (“Glauconie de upper part of the Danian succession of Denmark is char- Marets” de Dumont, 1839) to be Tertiary in age, but to acterised by the incoming of some planktonic foraminifera belong to the Cretaceous system. In the legend of the such as Globorotalia compressa and Globoconusa kozlowskii, geological map of Heers (Rutot, 1884), the Heersian DISUSED PALEOGENE REGIONAL STAGES FROM BELGIUM 205 was described as a stage of the Lower Tertiary. Later, Sparnacian to include the “argile plastique et lignites du it was frequently incorporated in the Landenian stage Soissonnais” and the Woolwich and Reading Beds of (Leriche, 1903; Gulinck & Hacquaert, 1954; Herman, England. Since then, the term S anetian has never been 1972; Schumacker-Lambry, 1978). used with the meaning proposed by Renevier (1873), but always with the restricted meaning of Dollfus (1880) (see S e term Selandian was introduced by Rosenkrantz (1924). Steurbaut, 1998). During the Paris meeting in September It consists of lower (Lellinge Greensand) and middle (Ker- 1999, it was decided by consensus that the Paleocene- teminde Marl) fossiliferous units and an upper calcareous- Eocene boundary should be lowered from the base of the barren Gray Clay. It lies unconformably upon the Danian Ypresian stage, as defi ned by the base of the Mont-Héribu Chalk Formation and is overlain by the “Ash series” (= Mo Member in Belgium, to the carbon isotope excursion Clay).