HomeAbout UsCurrent Events
A New Global Stratotype Section And Point (GSSP) In The Paleozoic Of The Barrandian Area
A new Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) in the Paleozoic of the Barrandian area
Author: Petr Štorch
A new Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) in the Paleozoic of the Barrandian area
Zuzana Tasáryová
The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has approved a new Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Aeronian Stage in lower Silurian black shales of the Barrandian area (Hlásná Třebaň, Beroun Disctrict). A stratotype is a geological locality on which the standard of a specific historical geological period is defined. The base of the Aeronian Stage is now defined by the first occurrence of the graptolite species Demirastrites triangulatus in the stratotype geological section at Hlásná Třebaň.
A formal proposal following a detailed study of the black shales of the Želkovice Formation at Hlásná Třebaň was submitted to the IUGS by an international research team led by Petr Štorch (GLÚ AV ČR). Štěpán Manda, Zuzana Tasáryová and Jiří Frýda from the Czech Geological Survey participated in the research, which lasted almost 10 years. The three-stage approval process for the new GSSP took almost a year. In practice, the results of the research can be used for geological surveys and documentation of large linear structures such as railway and road tunnels, as well as for the exploration of mineral deposits.
Rhuddanian-Aeronian boundary ("golden spike") in a stratotype section at Hlásná Třebaň. | Author: Petr Štorch
The new GSSP for the Aeronian Stage is the fourth global stratotype in the Czech Republic. This scientific success confirms the worldwide importance of the Barrandian geological area, which includes three other GSSPs that were also studied and proposed in the past by researchers from the Czech Geological Survey: 1) the Silurian-Devonian boundary at Klonk u Suchomast (Ivo Chlupáč et al. 1977); 2) the Přídolí Epoch at the Požáry Quarry near Řeporyje in Prague (Jiří Kříž et al. 1985); and 3) the Pragian Stage at Velká Chuchle in Prague (Ivo Chlupáč et al. 1989). Researchers from the Czech Geological Survey thus continue a long tradition of a world-wide recognized research by geologists and palaeontologists in the field of stratigraphy.
Congratulations to all authors on this important achievement!
