Newsletter on Carboniferous Stratigraphy Table of Contents EXCECUTIVE’S COLUMN .......................................................................................................................................... 3 REPORT OF THE SCCS BUSINESS MEETING HELD AT PERTH, AUSTRALIA ................................................................................. 5 ST ST ANNUAL REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 1 , 2009 TO OCTOBER 31 , 2010.................................................................. 6 SUMMARY OF EXPENDITURES.............................................................................................................................. 22 TASK-GROUP REPORTS FOR THE NOV. 1ST, 2010 TO OCT. 31ST, 2011 FISCAL YEAR.......................................... 23 REPORT OF THE JOINT DEVONIAN–CARBONIFEROUS BOUNDARY GSSP REAPPRAISAL TASK GROUP.......................................... 23 REPORT OF THE TASK GROUP TO ESTABLISH A GSSP CLOSE TO THE EXISTING VISÉAN–SERPUKHOVIAN BOUNDARY ...................... 26 REPORT OF THE TASK GROUP TO ESTABLISH A GSSP CLOSE TO THE EXISTING BASHKIRIAN–MOSCOVIAN BOUNDARY ................... 30 REPORT OF THE TASK GROUP TO ESTABLISH THE MOSCOVIAN–KASIMOVIAN AND KASIMOVIAN–GZHELIAN BOUNDARIES ............. 33 CONTRIBUTIONS BY MEMBERS ............................................................................................................................ 35 IRIKLINSKOE SECTION: CARBONATE- PLATFORM SLOPE CEMENTSTONES AND SERPUKHOVIAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF EASTERN SOUTH URALS (RUSSIA) ...................................................................................................................................................... 35 PROGRESS IN CYCLOTHEM/ SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF TYPE LOWER MOSCOVIAN SUCCESSION OF MOSCOW BASIN, RUSSIA ..... 42 THE VISÉAN-SERPUKHOVIAN BOUNDARY ON THE EASTERN SLOPE OF THE SOUTH URALS ..................................................... 50 PRELIMINARY MOSCOVIAN CONODONT SCALE OF THE DONETS BASIN, UKRAINE .................................................................. 56 THREE POTENTIAL LEVELS FOR THE BASHKIRIAN-MOSCOVIAN BOUNDARY IN THE NAQING SECTION BASED ON CONODONTS .......... 61 LALLA MIMOUNA NORTH, AN IMPORTANT DEVONIAN / CARBONIFEROUS BOUNDARY SECTION AT THE NORTHERN MARGIN OF THE MAIDER, ANTI-ATLAS, SE MOROCCO .......................................................................................................................... 64 MEETINGS ............................................................................................................................................................. 71 SCCS OFFICERS AND VOTING MEMBERS 2009-2012 ............................................................................................ 80 SCCS CORRESPONDING MEMBERSHIP 2011 ........................................................................................................ 82 Newsletter edited by Markus Aretz with the assistance of Barry Richards. Thanks to all colleagues who contributed to this newsletter! Cover Illustration: The cover shows on overview photograph of the carbonate-dominant Nashui section by the village of Naqing in southern Guizhou Province, South China. The Carboniferous component of the Nashui section and the interval illustrated is dominated by fine-grained limestone turbidites of lower-slope to basin aspect. A few debris-flow deposits containing large blocks occur in the Pennsylvanian part of the section and higher. Intervals of nodular limestone, bedded chert, and shale to mudstone also occur. The section is a good GSSP candidate for stage boundaries including: Viséan/Serpukhovian, Bashkirian/Moscovian, Moscovian/Kasimovian and Kasimovian/Gzhelian. (Photo courtesy of Barry Richards) 2 Volume 29 EXCECUTIVE’S COLUMN Dear Fellow Carboniferous Researchers, for the evening of August 7th (room to be announced in the program) and we will be developing an Important meetings agenda for the meeting. We encourage all members During the November 1st 2011 to October 31st to submit agenda items you wish addressed at the 2012 ICS fiscal year there will be numerous SCCS/SPS meeting to the SCCS chairman. professional/societal meetings our members will Newsletter and ISSN number want to attend but the 34th International Geological Congress (IGC) is probably of most importance and In late November 2011, our chairman applied for greatest interest to our members. We try to hold at an ISSN number for the Newsletter on least one formal SCCS workshop and field meeting Carboniferous Stratigraphy by on-line application to every year but this year we do not plan to hold any Library and Archives Canada. Because of the because of the high importance of the 34th IGC and international nature of our serial, the request was the opportunity to participate on the great diversity forwarded to the ISSN International Centre and we of pre- and post-congress field trips associated with were informed by Sylvie Viel at ISSN Canada that that meeting. our online serial has been recorded provisionally in the ISSN Register as: ISSN 2225-8981. This means From the 5th - 10th of August 2012, the an ISSN number can only be applied to our online quadrennial IGC will be held in Brisbane, Australia. (webpage and e-mail) versions of our newsletter Please examine the website at www.34igc.org for and another application will need to be submitted details about the scientific program, congress field for our print version. The number must be trips and general information. The SCCS will not be prominently displayed on the title screen or home holding a symposium at the meeting because we page of our online publication. The assignment of held the XVII International Congress on the the ISSN number is important because it gives our Carboniferous and Permian in Perth, Australia last Newsletter on Carboniferous Stratigraphy the status July and do not anticipate many of our members will of a formal publication instead of that of a simple take the long and expensive trip to Australia two newsletter. Because of the change in status, we years in a row. We encourage you, however, to try should probably deal with papers submitted to the and attend the meeting and submit abstracts to newsletter more formally and rigorously - perhaps symposia that are relevant to your task-groups more careful editing and sending each paper out for activities. Within congress theme 35 peer review. Regular news items, such as material in (Geostandards), Marco Balini, Jim Ogg and Stan the Executive's column, the simplified version of the Finney are chairing Symposium 35.1 GSSPs (Global ICS Annual Reports, and task-group reports would Boundary-Stratotype Section and Point) as global not be sent out for review. We look for your ideas standards. For symposium 35.1, contributions on all and suggestions on these matters. aspects of GSSPs as global standards, particularly for periods (such as the Carboniferous) not covered Nominations for voting members in other theme sessions, are encouraged. New GSSP Article 9.2 of the 2002 revision of the Statutes of proposals, evaluations of existing GSSPs, the International Commission on Stratigraphy [ICS] preservation of GSSPs, and all aspects of their age, entitled 'Terms of Office for Voting Members' states: calibration, and correlation are welcome "The terms of office for voting members of contributions in 35.1. The deadline for abstracts is Subcommissions and Task Groups shall be the the 17th of February, 2012 and field-trip booking period between two IGCs (International Geological closes on the 31st of March 2012. Early-bird Congresses), normally four (4) years, and can be registration closes on the 30th of April and standard extended for a maximum of two additional four (4) registration rates commence. year periods." Therefore, the following six voting At the 34th IGC, our ICS Chairman Stan Finney members who will have served three terms [12 plans to hold one long public meeting (open to all years] are required to retire from regular voting who want to attend) for ISC business on August 6th membership in the SCCS at the time of the IGC in and a second shorter meeting on August 9th that will Brisbane, Australia, in August of 2012. be only for subcommission chairs and the ICS executive. One important matter that will be Members who will retire as regular voting members addressed is the formal ICS recognition of in 2012 substages. The Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy has joined with the Subcommission on Darwin Boardman [USA] (ammonoids, conodonts) Permian Stratigraphy to hold a business meeting for Katsumi Ueno [Japan] (fusulinids, biostratigraphy) all of our members. The meeting has been scheduled Luc Hance [Belgium] (forams, biostratigraphy) 3 Newsletter on Carboniferous Stratigraphy Tamara Nemyrovska [Ukraine] (conodonts, these nominees with a view toward achieving and biostratigraphy) maintaining regional and methodological diversity Demir Altiner [Turkey] (forams, biostratigraphy) as much as possible, as indicated in the third Barry Richards [Canada] (stratigraphy, paragraph of section 9.6 of the ICS Statutes. sedimentology) Nominations for the positions of SCCS chairman Current members who can continue automatically and assistant chairman for the next term Under the ICS rules, a geoscientist can serve two James Barrick [USA] (conodonts, biostratigraphy) terms as either a chairman or assistant chairman of a subcommission. Article 9.1 of the 2002 revision of Holger Forke [Germany] (forams, conodonts, the Statutes of the International Commission on biostratigraphy) Stratigraphy