Xiaoshuai Chen

National Research Center for Geoanalysis

Multistorey vegetation was reestablished in the Middle to Late Triassic following the end-Permian mass extinction, ultimately forming extensive forests worldwide. There are some cosmopolitan elements in these communities, such as the Neocalamites (Sphenophyta), that bear significant climatic implications. Here, we report an in situ fossil forest of...

The investigation area is located in the western mountainous area of Henan Province. It is midsummer in late August, with an average temperature of about 21–33 ℃. During this period, it is mostly sunny with thunderstorms. We recommend wearing thinner clothes and long shirts, and to come equipped with sunscreen and rainwear. The routes are generally...

The northeastern Sichuan area in the northern Yangtze margin has unique Ediacaran geological records, especially the Doushantuo Formation (DST), and become a hot research area in recent years. However, the Cryogenian-Ediacaran (C-E) boundary has not been precisely identified, which restricts the in-depth study of geological information during this...

The rapid rise of glacioeustatic change is the most extreme paleoenvironment alteration in the aftermath of Snowball Earth. Although geologists conducted a lot of multi-subdiscipline research on this issue previously, there still exists the potential room for further discussions of the process in detail. For decades, the practice proved that the Fi...

The existence of a 0.3 Ga“great unconformity” between the Mesoproterozoic “Undefined System” Xiamaling Formation and the “Neoproterozoic” Longshan Formation has long been controversial. In this study, stratigraphy, sedimentology, detrital zircon dating, lithium isotope, and major and trace elements were applied to systematically analyze their relat...

The Ediacaran–Cambrian transition (approx. 580–520 million years ago), one of the most critical intervals in Earth's history, witnessed physical environment change and climate fluctuations coupled with extraordinary radiations of metazoan life. Up to now, there are insufficient data to evaluate the true nature of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition c...

While Ediacaran cap dolostones research is a hot topic, detailed sedimentological analysis of barite-bearing cap dolostones remains scarce. Here, new data are presented from Xiangerwan in northern Three Gorges, South China, to illustrate the sedimentary characteristics, depositional environment and formation mechanism of the barite-bearing cap dolo...

Red beds are irrefutable evidence of important geological events; understanding their formation mechanism and sedimentary environment provide insights about Earth's history and the evolution of life. In this paper, Precambrian red beds from over 70 outcrops in nearly 30 regions in different countries are statistically assessed using their lithology...

The Cretaceous, with relatively high atmospheric CO2 concentrations, temperatures, and sea levels, is a typical greenhouse period in the geologic history of the Earth. Recently, gradual changes in the understanding of the Early Cretaceous climate have led to the proposal of small-scale polar glaciers or cooling events in polar regions. However, the...

The deep time (pre-Quaternary) glacial record is an important means to understand the growth, development, and recession of the global cryosphere on very long timescales (10⁶–10⁸ Myr). Sedimentological description and interpretation of outcrops has traditionally played an important role. Whilst such data remain vital, new insights are now possible...

Ediacaran cap dolomites are strong evidence for the glaciation during the Neoproterozoic. Stratigraphic-sedimentological studies combined with δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O isotope analyses are used for defining the processes of post-glacier environmental changes and sea-level rise caused by glacier melting and the reconstruction of the depositional environments f...

The Gepatsch Glacier in Tirol (Austria) is a rapidly retreating valley glacier whose host valley and forefield reveal subglacial, proglacial, and reworked sediment-landform assemblages. Structures include roches moutonées develop on gneiss, compound bedrock-sediment bedforms (crag and tail structures), flutes, and small diamicton ridges. The glacia...

Increasing sedimentary records and non-glacial facies reported from various regional glaciations suggest diverse interpretation against the ‘hard’ snowball Earth. At Shennongjia, in northern Yangtze Craton, glaciogenic strata of the Nantuo Formation (~649-635 Ma) are widely outcropped, which represents the Marinoan glacial record. In this study, se...

The continuous existence of the Marinoan Ice Age, a late Cryogenian panglaciation (Snowball Earth), is challenged by the occurrences of widespread glacial marine and nonglacial deposits consisting of stratified diamictite, laminated siltstone and claystone, and even carbonates, which indicate an episode of partial deglaciation. Red beds that common...

Depositional evidence for glaciation (dropstones, diamictites) is common in Neoproterozoic strata, and often debated, but erosional evidence (e.g., unconformities cut directly by ice) is rare. Only two such unconformities are known to have been well preserved globally from the Ediacaran Period (in western Australia and central China). This paper pr...

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