CARBONIFEROUS MARINE TRANSGRESSION IN NORTH CHINA

On the basis of the distribution and correlation of the marine beds and fusulinid fossil zones in the Caraoniferous Benxiand Taiyuan Formations in North China, combined with the controlling effects of the regional structures on the Carboniferous marine transgression. The author divides the Carboniferous into the early, middle and late epochs and describes the regularity of the changes of the transgression snd regression. The author considers that the principal direction of the Carboniferous transgression in North China was from southwest to nrthwest, but the extent of the Early to early Middle Carboniferous transgression was restricted to the northern Jiangsu-eastern Liaoning-southern Jilin area east of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault. The sea water at that time advanced from south to north. The scale of the transgression expanded somewhat by the late Middle Carboniferous. The sea water from northern Jiangsu and Anhui invaded into Shanxi and other areas and covered the largest area in the Late Carboniferous, when it extended northwards as far as eastern Liaoning and outhwards as far as the southern margin of the North China plate.