Stratigraphic correlations between the Brabant Massif and the Stavelot, Rocroi and Givonne inliers (Belgium) and geological implications

Abstract

The Caledonian basement crops out in the middle and southern part of Belgium in two major tectonic units: the Brabant Massif in the Brabant Parautochthon and the Stavelot-Venn, Rocroi, Givonne and Serpont inliers in the Ardenne Allochthon. The main aim of this work is to achieve a chronostratigraphic correlation between the Brabant Massif and the Ardenne inliers, from the lower Cambrian to the Middle Ordovician. Throughout his career, Michel Vanguestaine established an informal acritarch biozonation for this basement, which is only linked to the international stratigraphic scale in vigour at that time. Our first step was to correlate these informal biozones with the trilobite (Cambrian) and graptolite (Ordovician) biozonations which are currently well correlated with the chronostratigraphy. Then, compilation of the literature concerning each of these sedimentary units makes it possible to assign a chronostratigraphic position to their constituent formations. This work has permitted the establishment of a complete chart of the stratigraphic correlations between the Brabant Massif and the three main Ardenne inliers (Stavelot-Venn, Rocroi and Givonne). Geological implications are discussed: the Brabant Massif and the Ardenne inliers formed a single sedimentation basin with different and rheologically contrasting basements (rift and shoulder). New arguments confirm the presence of a Caledonian orogeny in the Ardenne.

Black adzes in the Early Neolithic of Belgium: Contribution of the Raman microspectrometry and petrography in characterization and sourcing

“…The spots have the size of radiolarians, but no ornamentation could be observed in thin section nor under the SEM and the circular shape is also absent. Radiolarian presence is yet to be confirmed by specialists (Herbosch & Blockmans 2012;Herbosch et al 2002). A banded texture is observable under the SEM, showing an alternation of pure vitreous silica bands without any pores and cryptocrystalline (<5 µm) silica bands with numerous micropores and rutile crystals (Figure 5).…”

Tremadocian and Floian (Ordovician) linguliformean brachiopods from the Stavelot–Venn Massif (Avalonia; Belgium and Germany)

“…rare brachiopods and conodonts), the greywackes consist of quartz grains, rhodochrosite, hematite, phosphate and volcanic rock fragments in a hematite-rich matrix (Berger, 1965). The conodonts, studied by Vanguestaine et al (2004), belong to the Paroistodus proteus Zone and, according to Herbosch et al (2016Herbosch et al ( , 2020Herbosch et al ( , 2021, an early Floian age is likely for these fossiliferous beds. The rest of the Ottré Formation is locally characterised by the occurrence of coticule layers, this term designating a fine-grained metasedimentary yellowish rock mostly composed of quartz, garnet (spessartine) and mica (e.g.…”

Late Ediacaran to Early Cambrian Breakup Sequences and Establishment of the Eastern Laurentian Passive Margin, Newfoundland, Canada

“…Red mudstone of the Blow Me Down Brook Formation overlies and is interbedded with Ediacaran(?) pillowed to massive basalt and breccia in several localities (e.g., Gillis & Burden, 2006;Waldron et al, 2003;Williams & Cawood, 1989), but elsewhere, overlying units contain Oldhamia (Lindholm & Casey, 1990; see Herbosch & Verniers, 2011) and acritarch species (Burden et al, 2001(Burden et al, , 2005; S. E. Palmer et al, 2001) The Summerside Formation occupies an intermediate thrust sheet of the Humber Arm allochthon in the Humber Arm area (Corner Brook succession of Waldron et al, 2003) and includes ~700 m of quartz to feldspathic arenite and shale units that comprise submarine fan deposits (fig. 3, e.g., S. E. Palmer et al, 2001).…”