Corona Formation

Corona Formation
Stratigraphic range: Early Gzhelian
~303–302 Ma
↓
Monte Corona, Austrian side
TypeFormation
Unit ofPramollo Group
UnderliesAuernig Formation
OverliesPezzul Formation
Thickness300 m (980 ft)
Lithology
PrimaryConglomerate
OtherSandstone, mudstone
Location
Coordinates46°30′N 13°18′E / 46.5°N 13.3°E / 46.5; 13.3
Approximate paleocoordinates10°54′N 23°42′E / 10.9°N 23.7°E / 10.9; 23.7
RegionKronalpe
Udine
CountryAustria
Italy
ExtentCarnian Alps
Type section
Named forMonte Corona
Corona Formation is located in Austria
Corona Formation
Corona Formation (Austria)

The Corona Formation is a geologic formation of the Carnian Alps at the border of Austria and Italy. It preserves fossils dated to the Gzhelian stage of the Late Carboniferous period.[1]

The 300-metre (980 ft) thick formation comprises deposited in a deltaic environment. The Corona Formation has provided fossils of fish, brachiopods, a bryozoan, an insect, fossil flora including trunks and ichnofossils ascribed to Limnopus. The tracks from the Corona Formation include the oldest record of tetrapod tracks from the Southern Alps.[2] The rugose coral Amplexus coronae was named after the formation.

Description

The Corona Formation was defined as a formation by Venturini in 1990.[3] It is the lowermost Gzhelian unit in the late Pennsylvanian Pramollo Group, overlying the Kasimovian Pizzul Formation and overlain by the Auernig Formation in the Carnian Alpine border region of Austria and Italy. The mountains Monte Auernig, Monte Carnizza and the eponymous Monte Corona are composed of the formation. The formation is a 300-metre (980 ft) thick succession, characterized by alternating quartz conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones. The conglomerates are coarse infillings of distributary channels in a deltaic environment.[4] The formation is characterized by cyclothems (parasequences) of 30 to 40 metres (98 to 131 ft) thick.[5]

Fossil content

The Corona Formation has provided fossils of:[1]

The tracks of Limnopus from the Corona Formation represent the oldest record of tetrapod tracks from the Southern Alps.[2]

Flora

The formation has also provided abundant, well-preserved and diverse plant assemblages in coal-rich levels of up to 30 centimetres (12 in) in the fine sandstones and shaly levels of the Corona Formation. Therein, sphenophyte trunks with a diameter of up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) are preserved in situ.[2] The genus Lebachia, typically known from the Permian, is not found in other Carboniferous strata in the Alps.[14] The flora is of importance as one of the earliest examples of rebound after the Carboniferous rainforest collapse.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Corona Formation at Fossilworks.org
  2. ^ a b c Kustatscher et al., 2018, p.38
  3. ^ Ronchi et al., 2012, p.305
  4. ^ Marchetti et al., 2020, p.35
  5. ^ Vai & Venturi, 1997, p.179
  6. ^ Dalla Vecchia, 1988, p.54
  7. ^ Brauckmann & Hahn, 1983, p.246
  8. ^ a b c Hubmann et al., 2003, p.67
  9. ^ a b Pecar, 1986
  10. ^ Ernst, 2005, p.70
  11. ^ Vachard & Krainer, 2001, p.186
  12. ^ Vachard & Krainer, 2001, p.188
  13. ^ Marchetti et al., 2020, p.37
  14. ^ Ronchi et al., 2012, p.308
  15. ^ a b c d e Ronchi et al., 2012, p.309
  16. ^ a b Kustatscher et al., 2018, p.39
  17. ^ Samankassou, 2003, p.205
  18. ^ Kustatscher et al., 2018, p.40
  19. ^ a b c Kustatscher et al., 2018, p.44

Bibliography

  • Marchetti, Lorenzo; Muscio, Giuseppe; Petti, Fabio Massimo; Pillola, Gian Luigi; Zoboli, Daniel (2020), "The Carboniferous tetrapod ichnoassociation from Italy", Journal of Mediterranean Earth Sciences, 12: 31–39
  • Kustatscher, Evelyn; Nowak, Hendrik; Opluštil, Stanislav; Pšenička, Josef; Simonetto, Luca (2018), "The Carboniferous flora of the Carnic Alps - state of the art", Gortania - Geologia, Paleontologia, Paletnologia, 40: 33–47, ISSN 2038-0410
  • Ronchi, Ausonio; Kustatscher, Evelyn; Pittau, Paola; Santi, Giuseppe (2012), "Pennsylvanian floras from Italy: an overview of the main sites and historical collections", Geologia Croatica, 65 (3): 299–322, doi:10.4154/GC.2012.20
  • Ernst, Andrej (2005), "Upper Palaeozoic Bryozoa in Carnic Alps, Austria (a review)", Denisia, 16: 69–74
  • Hubmann, Bernhard; Pohler, Susanne; Schönlaub, Hans-Peter; Messner, Fritz (2003), "Paleozoic Coral-Sponge Bearing Successions in Austria", Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, 61: 1–91
  • Vachard, Daniel; Krainer, Karl (2001), "Smaller foraminifers, characteristic algae and pseudo-algae of the latest Carboniferous / Early Permian Rattendorf Group of the Carnic Alps (Austria/Italy)", Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 107: 169–195
  • Vai, Gian Battista; Venturini, Corrado (1997), "Moscovian and Artinskian rocks in the frame of the cyclic Permo-Carboniferous deposits of the Carnic Alps and related areas", Geodiversitas, 19: 173–186
  • Dalla Vecchia, F.M (1988), "First Record of a Petalodont (Petalodus ohioensis Safford, 1853) from the Alps", Gortania - Atti Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale, 9: 47–56
  • Pecar, J (1986), "Upper Carboniferous and Permian mesolobid chonetacean brachiopods of Karavanke Mountains (Yugoslavia) and Carnian Alps (Italy)", Geologija, 28/29: 9–53
  • Brauckmann, C.; Hahn, G. (1983), "Ein Palaeodictyopteren-Flügel aus dem Ober-Karbon der Karnischen Alpen", Carinthia II, 93: 245–251