INTERNA T/ONAL UNION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES COMMISSION ON STRA TIGRAPHY -s-D-s- SUBCOMMISSION ON DEVONIAN STRATIGRAPHY NEWSLETTER No. 14 December 1997 1. U. G. S Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy Newsletter No. 14, December 1997 Editor: Rex E. Crick Deparbnent of Geology UTA Box 19049 University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX U.S.A. 76019-0049 Voice: 817-272-2977 I Facsimile: 817-272-2628 /e-mail: [email protected] SDS Web Site = http://geology.uta.edu/geoweb/sds The Newsletter appears annually following SDS meetings. Contributions may be sent to the Editor at any time during the year for inclusion in the next issue. Guidelines for consideration in the preparation of contri­ butions are presented on the inside of the back cover. The printing of this issue is 150 copies with 102 mailed to titular and corresponding members, 23 to honorary members, Chairmen of the Carboniferous and Silurian Subcommissions, IUGS and ICS officers, friends of the Devonian, and libraries. Remaining copies are available from the Chairman, Secretary, or Editor. The costs of preparation, printing and postage for the Newsletter are shared equally by SDS and The Deparbnent ofGeology, University ofTexas atArlington. The Newsletter can also be viewed in electronic published format via the SDS World Wide Web site at URL http://geology.uta.edu/geoweb/sds. The SDS anonyous ftp site at ftp://geology.uta.edu/incoming or ftp:l/129.107.18.20/incoming is maintained for the convenience of SDS members. Contents EDITORIAL NOTES Electronic SDS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Registration Forms via E-mail ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Digital Newsletter .................................................................................................................................................................... 1 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN ........................................................................................................................................ 1 MINUTES OF THE SDS BUSINESS MEETING, 21th JULY, ROCHESTER .......................................................................... 2 DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED TO SDS ROCHESTER, NY 21 JULY 1997 Conc.: kitabicus-boundary; late original Pragian, Emsian, Zlichovian; Pol. excavatus Zone; intra-Emsian substage bound- ary (Peter Carls & Jose lgnacio Valenzuela-Rios) .............................................................................................................. 6 Comments to subdivision ofthe Emsian Stage (lvo Chlupac) ................................................................................................ 7 Subdivision ofthe Emsian stage (German SDS) ..................................................................................................................... 8 Js the term Strunian worth being properly defined, and thus kept? (Paul Sartenaer) .................. :...... ;.................................... 9 Comments on the revision ofthe Emsian Stage (Otto Walliser) ........................................................................................... 10 Proposal ofboundaries for a Late Frasnian Substage and for subdivision ofthe Famennian Stage into three Substages (Willi Ziegler & Charles Sandberg) .................................................................................................................................. 11 MINUTES FOR THE GERMAN SDS GROUP ........................................................................................................................ 13 REPORT OF THE GERMAN SDS MEETING AT ROCHESTER, N.Y.; JULY 1997 ............................................................. 14 REVISED GUIDELINES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GLOBAL CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHIC STANDARDS BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON STRATIGRAPHY (ICS) ............................................................................. 15 Background ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1S INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 1S Aims and principles ............................................................................................................................................................... 16 1'HE CHOICE OF THE BEST BOUNDARY LEVEL ................................................................................................................................ 17 The requirements for a GSSP ................................................................................................................................................ 18 Procedure for the submission of a GSSP ............................................................................................................................... 18 Revision of a GSSP ................................................................................................................................................................ 19 SELECTl!D REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................................. 19 ANNUALMEETING OF THE GERMAN PALAEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY, DAUN, 21-28 SEP. 1997 ........................ 20 (Continued on outside of back cover) Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy - (December 1997) Newsletter No. 14 EDITORIAL NOTES Electronic SDS The SDS web page is presently under construction and should be completed near the end of January 1997. Tue complete newsletter will be ready for viewing with a standard web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, or Cyberdog). If the web site does not appear properly with your current browser, you can download the most current versions of these browsers from the SDS Anonymous ftp site. The address of the SDS Anonymous ftp site remains geology.uta.edu if you use a standard file transfer program or ftp://geology.uta.edu/incoming if you use a web browser to connect to the site. If you have problems making a connection, contact me at [email protected]. I greatly appreciate all who used the ftp site to transfer contribution materials for the newsletter as well as those who have mastered the technique of attaching formatted text and graphics to e-mail messages. Your efforts greatly reduce my work load. Registration Forms via E-mail E-mail versions of the registration form for the IGCP 406 Warsaw Meeting and the registration form for the IGCP 421 Iran Meeting are available. The forms can be obtained automatically by sending an e-mail message to [email protected] with the appropriate subject (WARSAW MEETING or IRAN MEETING) spelled as given here. See notes at the bottom of pages 23 & 28 for more information. Digital Newsletter Newsletter #14 is available as an Abode Acrobat Portable Document at http://geology.uta.edu/geoweb/sds/nl4.pdf or by ftp at geology.uta.edu/incoming/sds/nl4.pdf. Acrobat readers for Macintosh and Windows computers are available at http:// www.adobe.com or http://geology.uta.edu/geoweb/sds. MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN On behalf of the SDS members attending the Symposium on Devonian Cyclicity and Sequence Stratigraphy at the University of Rochester last July, 1 thank the organizers Carlton E. BREIT and W.T. KIRCHGASSER especially for showing SDS members the applications of cyclicity and sequence stratigraphy in the Devonian ofNew York and for the hospitality given to our subcom­ mission. The number of participants at the SDS annual meeting and the proposals made, clearly show the interest of SDS members in the subdivision of the 7 formally defined Devonian stages (see minutes enclosed in this Newsletter). Further discus­ sion of the substage proposals will also be the main topic on the agenda of the next SDS business Meeting in Bologna, associated with the ECOS 7 conodont symposium (June 24-26, 1998). In order to have a successful discussion, please provide your proposals as soon as possible but no later than 31 May 1998, so they can be distributed in advance to participants. A last point of my message concerns SDS membership. At present there is no Canadian titular SDS member. Considering that Canada is a most important Devonian region, I am looking forward to receiving nominations for a Canadian titular membership. P. Bultynck E-mail: [email protected] Newsletter No. 14 (December 1997)- Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy Minutes of the SDS Business Meeting, 21th July, Rochester The annual business meeting was held during the evening of Monday 21th July, in the Susan B. Anthony Hall at Rochester University. The SDS meeting took place from 19th - 21th July in conjunction with the Amadeus Grabau Symposium on "Cyclicity and Bioevents in the Devonian System", organized by CM Carlton Brett et al. from Rochester and by TM Bill Kirchgasser from Potsdam. The symposium was followed from 22th to 27th July by exceedingly informative excursions to the splendid Devonian of western and eastern New York State and of northem Pennsylvania. PRESENT: Chairman P. Bultynck, secretary TM R.T. Becker; TMs: Yu Chang-min, M.R. House, W. Ziegler, W.T. Kirchgasser, C.A.-Sandberg, J.A. Talent, K. Weddige; CMs: J. Hladil, W.A. Oliver jr., J. Over,