INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON JURASSIC STRATIGRAPHY NEW Website for the ISJS at http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/people/bown/ISJSwebsite.htm Newsletter 32 Edited by Nicol Morton and Paul Bown August 2005 CONTENTS Page CHAIRMAN’S REPORT, Nicol Morton 1 NEWS ITEMS AND MEETINGS 7th International Congress on the Jurassic System, Kraków, Poland, 6th – 19 th September 2006, Andrzej Wierzbowski and colleagues 2 Menner Centenary Conferences, Moscow, 21st-23rd November, 2005, Yuri Gladenkov 3 32nd International Geological Congress, Florence 2004, Symposium G22.07. Jurassic World (Outside the Park) Nicol Morton & Paul Smith 4 International Geological Correlation Programme IGCP Project 458: Triassic – Jurassic boundary events, Jozsef Palfy 5 IGCP Project 506: Marine and Non-marine Jurassic: Global correlation and major geological events, Jingeng Sha 5 Location of 8th International Congress/Symposium on the Jurassic System, Nicol Morton 6 REPORTS OF WORKING GROUPS Triassic/Jurassic Boundary (Hettangian), Geoff Warrington 7 Sinemurian, Gert Bloos 12 Pliensbachian, Christian Meister 12 Toarcian, Serge Elmi 13 Aalenian, Maria Helena Henriques 13 Bajocian, Sixto R. Fernando Lopez 13 Callovian, John Callomon 14 Oxfordian, Guillermo Melende 16 Kimmeridgian, Andrzej Wierzbowski 16 Tithonian, Federico Oloriz & Guenter Schweigert 16 Geoconservation, Kevin Page 17 Liaison, Robert Chandler 18 CORRESPONDENCE A further comment on the GSSP of the Kimmeridgian Stage, John Callomon 28 Jurassic research meetings in Argentina 2003 – 2005, Susana Damborenea 29 Dorset and East Devon World Heritage Site Team, Richard Edmonds 32 The Wartae Subzone – a proposal for the lower boundary of the unified Upper Oxfordian Substage in the Submediterranean Province, Ewa Glowniak 34 Report on Jurassic activities in Portugal for 2004 – 2005, Maria Helena Henriques 37 New results of the study on Early Jurassic ammonites from Viet Nam and their stratigraphical implications, Vu Khuc, Christian Meister, Dang Tran Huyen 38 Definition of Triassic – Jurassic boundary, Spencer Lucas et al. 41 Session on the Jurassic System at the 2004 annual meeting of the Geological Society of Japan, Atushi Matsuoka 41 Hettangian – Sinemurian ammonites of New Zealand, Graeme Stevens 41 IN MEMORIAM Asunción LINARES RODRIGUEZ (1921 – 2005), José Sandoval& Leandro Sequeiros 42 Jürgen Rudolf REMANE (1934 – 2004), Nicol Morton 43 Howard W. TIPPER (1923 – 2005), Paul Smith 44 ISJS NEWSLETTER 32: 1 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT The priorities (not in order of merit) proposed for the Nicol MORTON Jurassic Subcommission for the next four years [email protected] include: Rôle of Jurassic Subcommission 1. Completion of GSSP proposals for all Jurassic This Newsletter, no. 32, is the first for the “new” Stages (remaining) by the next Jurassic Congress in Jurassic Subcommission, which was officially Krakow, September 2006. appointed by I.U.G.S. during the 32nd International Congress at Florence in August 2004 and will serve 2. Stage Working Groups to standardise and propose until the 33rd International Geological Congress on GSSPs for Substages as appropriate, but named Oslo in 2008. While the Chairman’s report last year ONLY as Lower/Middle/Upper. We do not want to reviewed what had been achieved during the previous clutter up the nomenclature with named Substages four years, this report is more concerned with looking such as Carixian, Domerian, etc. These will be forward to the next four years. approved by the Jurassic Subcommission, but ICS and IUGS have no current plans for involvement The Jurassic Subcommission has two main rôles: with Substages. 1. It is an official body of the International 3. I suggest also asking the Stage Working Groups to Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS, of which define the bases of the Standard (Ammonite) Zones the various Subcommission chairmen are in terms not only of the correlation marker event but voting members) and of the International also to propose a stratotype point for the basal Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Each boundary in the same way as for the Stages. Similar year we report to ICS, which reports in turn definition of Regional Zones and maximising the to IUGS (the ICS report for 2004 totalled detail of correlation with the Standard Zones would 163 pages!). The Jurassic Subcommission be very valuable. receives from ICS each year a small amount of funding - reduced for 2005 to US$2000 4. Developing and expanding the Thematic Working (translated into 1523 Euros) because of the Groups, some of which have been very successful. new commitment of IUGS to the For this to work they need to be given more specific International Year of Planet Earth. In this projects and targets - for example searching for and rôle we have three officers (Chairman, Vice- interpreting data from all sources relevant to Chairman, Secretary) and twenty Voting reconstructing the palaeobiogeography or the climate Members, with, in addition, an unspecified of one or more specific time-intervals. number of Corresponding Members. Our function is to promote and coordinate long- 5. Investigate the establishment of databases which term international cooperation and establish would bring together and make available information standards in stratigraphy, with the priority to from all sources associated with the "members and define global chronostratigraphic units. friends" of the Jurassic. 2. It is a worldwide association of all those Activities 2004-2005 who have an interest in the geology of the The years 2004 and 2005 have been very active for the Jurassic, whether they are “official” members members of the Jurassic Subcommission: or not. I have always liked the phrase used by my friend John Callomon ‘the Jurassic 1. A high-profile symposium was held during the family’ for this group – it reflects the International Geological Congress in Florence friendly atmosphere of our meetings. In this 2004. This was very well attended, with eight rôle our function is to enable and promote oral presentations during a half-day session on international collaboration in research on the the afternoon of Tuesday 24th August and Jurassic and to sponsor regular international posters on display for the full day. A report is meetings. For me, personally, and perhaps given in this Newsletter. for most of you, this is the more important rôle! 2. During 2005 three of the Stage Working Groups, Toarcian, Kimmeridgian and Objectives 2004-2008 Tithonian, held discussion and field meetings. For the next four years (also discussed last year, in And results will be reported in the next my report to ICS for 2004) I noted the following Newsletter. proposed objectives for the Jurassic Subcommission for 2004 – 2008: 3. There is controversy regarding the proposals of some of the Working Groups, as is to be For those of us who are interested in the geology of expected. Some of this is aired in the current the Jurassic the four-yearly International Symposia/ Newsletter: Congresses are a priority and these will be "officially" supported and sponsored. So also will (a) Recommendations by the other meetings as far as resources allow. Geoconservation Working Group convenor Kevin Page, concerning conservation and protection of fossils and fossil sites are discussed by some members of the Liaison ISJS NEWSLETTER 32: 2 Working Group. Although they are not contributions to our science will be known and employed professionally as respected by all of us. He and his wife Angelika palaeontologists, they have made became close friends of myself and my wife Sheila; we important contributions to our science and will miss him personally and his contributions to our their views deserve to be taken into scientific discussions. consideration. Howard Tipper (Tip) was a larger-than-life character of (b) The proposals of the Kimmeridgian the type we sometimes have in geology. The best Working Group, convenor Andrzej tribute I can make to his memory is to recall how it Wierzbowski, are criticised by John came about that the 5th Jurassic Symposium was held Callomon. The issue of historical in Canada. During the fieldtrip before the 4th precedent is important in arriving at a Symposium in Mendoza, Argentina, Giulio Pavia and proposal for the GSSP defining the base of I discussed where the following Jurassic Symposium a Stage, but should not preclude should be. My opinion was that at that time (1994) refinements if improved correlation can be the most significant new research results on the achieved. Jurassic had come from Spain (the influence of Asunción Linares and others) and from western Canada This Newsletter should not be taken as representing (Tip, Paul Smith and colleagues). There were no the “official” view of the Jurassic Subcommission, Spanish representatives in Argentina but there were but should remain available for presentation of some Canadians, so Russell Hall had the task of alternative views which should be considered by all its contacting his colleagues back home to obtain their readers. agreement. So in 1998 we all met in Vancouver. My treasured personal memory is of the post-Symposium IGCP Projects. Projects funded by the International fieldtrip to the Queen Charlotte Islands, led by Tip. Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) are The photograph from Paul Smith brings back the independent of the Jurassic Subcommission but there memories. are two with which we are associated. The highly successful Project 458, on Triassic–Jurassic Boundary Acknowledgements. The success of these Jurassic Events, led by Stephen Hesselbo, Chris McRoberts Newsletters