Sedimentary response to the early Silurian (Rhuddanian-Aeronian) post-glacial transgression and Kwangsian Orogeny in the Upper Yangtze region, South China

Unlike the lowermost Silurian 'hot' shales deposited in many other regions of the world, the early Silurian (Rhuddanian-Aeronian) succession in South China exhibits a distinctive lithofacies transition from organic-rich black siliceous mudstone in the early Rhuddanian, to interlaminated siltstone and mudstone with relatively low total organic carbon content in the late Rhuddanian, and finally to organic-lean argillaceous mudstone or calcareous mudstone in the late Aeronian. The interlaminated siltstone and mudstone interval has been the subject of a long-standing dispute over its nature, whether it belongs to turbidite or contourite. In this study, we employed a range of approaches, including petrographic analyses, U-Pb dating of detrital zircons, and measurements of paleocurrent directions to generate a dataset that reveals: (1) four typical fine-grained facies developed within the interlaminated siltstone and mudstone interval, (2) detrital zircon U-Pb ages yielding a wide age range from Archean (similar to 2.50 Ga) to early Paleozoic (0.42 Ga), with a predominant peak of ca. 447 Ma based on 516 detrital zircon U-Pb analyses, and (3) paleocurrent directions indicate the presence of current circulation in the Upper Yangtze region. The results of this study demonstrated that the detritus of the interlaminated siltstone and mudstone interval originated from concurrent explosive volcanic eruptions along the southeastern margin of the South China Craton. It was deposited and reworked by bottom currents under the background of the early Silurian post-glacial transgression. We suggest that the occurrence of the interlaminated siltstone and mudstone interval is indicative of a far-field sedimentary response to the onset and progradation of the Kwangsian Orogeny in the Upper Yangtze region.