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.............................................................................................................................. SDS Minutes 2007 .............................................................................................................................. Minutes of the SDS Business Meeting Eureka
, 1.
Introduction and apologies for absence 2.
Approval of the Minutes of the Business Meeting, 5.
Devonian Chronostratigraphic Definitions 7.
SDS Newsletter and Publications The
SDS business meeting for 2007 took place during the
SDS International Meeting and Nevada Field Excursion on Rapid
Geological Change organized jointly by TM J. Over and CM J. Morrow,
9th-17th, September 2007. Attendance
The Chair (R. T. Becker) & Secretary (J. E. A. Marshall), TM’s
C. Brett, J-G. Casier,
J. Hladil, N. Izokh. J. Over, C.A. Sandberg, E. Schindler, T. Uyeno, J.
I. Valenzuela-Ríos. CM’s G.C. Baird, M D. Brice, C. Corradini,
B. Ellwood, S. Kaiser, U. Jansen, M. Murphy, C. Ver Straeten. Guests
J. Barrick, A. J. Bartholomew, F. Bigey, R. Brocke, C. Crônier, C.
Dojen, S. Ellwood, S. Gouwy, S. Hartenfels, P. Königshof, L. Koptíková,
T. Liao, F.W. Luppold, B. Mottequin, J. Nagel-Myers, M N. Savage,
Schemm-Gregory, C. Stock, P. Yilmaz. Documents
were presented and numbered as follows: 1.
Emsian correlation chart, P. Carls 2.
Reference sections for the Middle Givetian substage, P. Bultynck
& S. Gouwy. 3.
Late Devonian goniatite and conodont zonation, R.T. Becker & M.
R. House, in press. 4.
Late Devonian goniatite, conodont and miospore zonation, compiled by J.
Marshall from information supplied by R.T. Becker & M. Streel. 5.
Brachiopod faunal successions and the subdivision of the Famennian in 6.
Upper and uppermost Famennian miospore and conodont correlation in the
Ardenne-Rhenish area, M. Streel. 7.
The Dasberg Event in the Rhenish Massive, 8.
Reiteration of proposal for the only two Famennian Substage boundaries
that are globally recognizable and coincident with major transgressions,
C.A. Sandberg. 9.
Should the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary be redefined?, S.I. Kaiser
& C. Corradini. 1.
Introduction and apologies for absence The
meeting started at 14:04. The Chairman welcomed the large group of
participants and noted how pleased we were to be in The
joint meeting with IGCP 499 organised with Peter Königshof had been a
big success. It is now more complex to create new IGCP projects. We
could perhaps be able to organise another programme which initiates new
research areas for SDS. An
address list was being circulated. Could attendees please update the
list, particularly emails. A new master SDS list is being compiled and
will be held and maintained by Thomas Becker. The
list of apologies was read out. In particular there was a problem with
Ramadan and the vice-chair El Hassani had not been able to attend.
Everyone was reminded that if members of SDS were not heard of and made
no contact for 3 years they would be deleted from the membership list. Apologies:
TM's
Blieck, El Hassani, Ma, Mawson, Tsyganko, Weddige; CM's Aung, Bakharev,
Benfrika, Blake, Bultynck, Burrow, Chen Xiu-qin, Day, Ebert, Feist,
Garcia-Alcalde, Hartkopf-Fröder, Kim, Kirchgasser, Klapper, Mistiaen,
Narkiewicz,Obukovskaya, Obut, Ovnatanova, Paris, Richardson, Slavik,
Spalletta, Streel, Truyols-Massoni, Wright, Streel, Turner, Wang
Chen-Yuan, Yolkin. At
this point TM Jeff Over, as the local secretary, arrived to inform the
meeting that the water supply to the city of 2.
Approval of the Minutes of the Business Meeting, The
minutes had been distributed by email, were printed in SDS Newsletter
22 and were available on the new SDS website. They were approved. 3.1
Devonian News
The SDS Newsletter had been distributed from Münster with the
assistance of Mrs Klaus. There had been problems with Newsletter 21
which had not been distributed and Rex Crick had retired from his
university post. It had been available on the former SDS website but
with page 28 missing. TM Alain Blieck has it available for distribution
as a pdf. It is now available on the new SDS website and page 28 will be
added. The
SDS is one of the most active ICS sub-commissions and had regular
meetings. Other sub-commissions were still trying to define stages and
had lots of problems. Jim Ogg of the ICS recognised that the SDS was
very active and wanted us to go ahead with the first chapter of the
Geological Time Scale ‘2010’. The SDS still has young workers who
are still feeding into the sub-commission after their PhD’s and the
meeting had many new ‘in progress’ results. The
new SDS homepage had been created by CM Carlo Corradini and Sophie Gouwy.
The chairman was very pleased with the homepage. The old homepage was
still recognized on the ICS website and the chair would talk to ICS to
get the links changed. CM
Carlo Corradini and Sophie Gouwy then demonstrated the new homepage
which is at www.unica.it/SDS.
The site contained a list of SDS members with contact details, links to
the ICS and IUGS with a page of planned Devonian links. Pictures were
needed of members and past meetings. The members needed to check their
addresses. Input from SDS members was also required for the GSSP part of
the site and links to other sites. TM
Carl Brett then raised the issue of SDS members placing pdf’s of
recent papers on the website. CM Carlo Corradini responded that at best
we could only include links to pdf’s on other website. Publishers were
generally unhappy for third parties to be distributing copyright
material. The Chairman did suggest the possibility of a list of low
resolution pdf’s that were available from authors by request. CM
Carlo Corradini also informed SDS members that as the website would
include a list of all members together with their address, ‘phone
number and email details then under Italian law permission is required
from the individual to permit the SDS to display this information. So,
an email would be sent to all members requesting this permission, a
simple ‘yes’ reply was the only response required. Could all members
also check their address details, there were a few duplicates and some
had no names and had not been updated. All
the minutes since the There
is a website link to the ICS GSSP pages. The Chairman has assembled all
the figures (maps, logs and section) for the GSSP’s but requests more
GSSP photographs. In particular some of the defining fossils (specific
to the GSSP sections) have never been
illustrated. Examples that are missing are the basal Frasnian
marker Ancyrodella rotundiloba from CM
Carlo Corradini commented that it would be good to keep a permanent
website record of past meetings especially pictures. More space would be
available to keep open links to meeting websites such as the At
the end of the presentation the Chairman gave a big thank you to Carlo
and Sophie for their hard work in establishing the new website. TM Jeff
Over then arrived to inform members that there was now water at the Owl
Club (allowing a sober continuation of the meeting). 3.2
SDS tasks and future work plan The
Chairman outlined these as: 1)
Formal definition and documentation of the new sub-stages 2)
the inclusion of modern stratigraphic techniques in these definitions
such as chemo- stratigraphy, magnetic-susceptibility, graphic
correlation and isotope curves. All of these to be linked to a
Milankovitch cycle record perhaps with a special meeting on orbital
tuning. This was especially important with the large error bars that
exist in geochronology. 3)
The production of an improved Devonian sea-level curve 4)
the link between evolution and climate, perhaps again with a special
meeting. Ideas
were then requested from the audience. The
Secretary commented that much of the Milankovitch cycle data was already
known. It needed to be linked together. TM
Carl Brett highlighted the requirement for the C isotope stratigraphy There
was also a need for the formal definition of regional
chronostratigraphic units, for example the Gedinnian and Siegenian are
still used in http://popups.ulg.ac.be/Geol/sommaire.php?id=979
TM
Jindrich Hladil raised the question about the future of the Devonian
numerical scales produced by TM Karsten Weddige and published by the
Senckenberg. These are available online but difficult to access. TM
Eberhard Schindler noted that Karsten was going to revise the tables but
that there were problems with continuing publication of the printed
versions. However, it was planned to place a link on the Senckenberg
home page. In any event Karsten Weddige could be contacted for further
information. CM
Peter Carls noted that the Early Devonian correlation table had a ‘virus’.
The interval occupied by the serotinus zone was very long and the
scaling was odd. TM Nacho Valenzuela noted that it was very important to
provide the table and to be able to read the annotation. CM
Uli Jansen commented that there was discussion of the German local and
regional stages in the House volume. The
ICS has been very busy and there has been lots of difficulties in the
last 9 months including a breakdown in relations between the IUGS and
the ICS. Subcommission chairs were approached in an attempt to remove
Gradstein and Ogg as officers. The ICS funding for 2007 would have been
removed unless the chairs agreed to 5 points in 4 weeks. However, all
the chairs agreed that Gradstein and Ogg were doing a good job. The real
issues were to do with a) the Quaternary and b) the nomination and
proposal of new officers. However, there would be no money for the ICS
unless the Quaternary was reinstated from the Neogene. There had been
representation from INQUA to the IUGS and discussions as to the
definition being at either 1.8 or 2.6 Ma. The ICS did as the IUGS
requested but there were still issues with the Gelasian and the
definition of the Neogene. The debate had not been good for the ICS. The
funds for the ICS had been eventually released but at 50% of the
previous year. CM
Brooks Ellwood asked about the status of sub-eras and the need to have a
common base to both the Quaternary and the Pleistocene. The Chair noted
that all the problems were not solved as the Quaternary was back with
the rank of a system. The
2004 Geological Timescale had no Quaternary. The IUGS logo is on the
book but it was not an IUGS approved time scale. The ICS had targeted
the final production of the next timescale for the Oslo IGC in 2008.
This date had now been revised to 2010. However, Berndt Kauffman ( CM
Peter Carls raised the question of the timescale. It requires our data
but is a personal effort for the benefit of all. Science makes its own
progress and cannot be governed by commissions. The Chairman replied
that the time scale was an absolute goal and it was our duty to produce
a time scale for The
Chairman commented that the Kauffman chart had been discussed at the SDS
meeting in
CM
Chuck Ver Straeten noted that Devonian timescales were work in progress
and need more work. We require a more aggressive attitude to acquiring
age dates but who can we get to produce the analyses. The Chairman
remarked that it was not easy to generate the analyses, it takes 9
months to produce a single age date. CM Brook Ellwood reported that a
group (details could be supplied) were getting funding for the zircon
dating of bentonites with 10 labs dating each bentonite and at present
focusing on the Cenomanian/Turonian. The
Chairman noted that another timescale had been produced by GeoArabia.
This had been flagged as good by the ICS although it includes units such
as the Mid Carboniferous and Mid Cretaceous, which have no formal base.
Heavy criticism have come from various subcommissions (e.g.,
Carboniferous, Jurassic) and the chart shows that ICS work still is not
sufficiently transmitted to the wider geoscientific community. CM Brooks
Ellwood commented that we needed to lobby the ICS so that the SDS could
provide input from all our past work. The
Chairman reported that the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic
Nomenclature is currently producing a new International Stratigraphy
Guide. CM Mike Murphy objected to the general aim. M. Bianca-Cita, the
ISSN chairman from The
Chairman reported that the ICS prizes were open for nominations. There
were the Digby McClaren prize for an individual who through a long
period of time had contributed significantly to stratigraphy. The second
prize was awarded on the basis of stratigraphic work in a single paper.
SDS needed to submit CV’s and a case by the end of October which would
be difficult. The Secretary was of the view that SDS should always make
a submission (otherwise how could we claim to the ICS that we were
producing top science). At this point TM Jeff Over nominated TM Carl
Brett for the Digby McClaren award.
The
final item of ICS news was that voting was taking place on new names for
the Cambrian. This included completely new and ‘invented’ names,
such the Fortunian, a practise also adopted for the Ordovician and
Silurian. The
meeting then broke for a coffee break from 15:35 until 15:54 5.
Devonian Chronostratigraphic Definitions 5.1
Base of the Emsian The
Chairman expressed the view that this standing items was not to be
discussed here and we should wait until we have seen the stratotype in CM
Peter Carls then introduced Document 1. TM Nadya Isokh responded that we
would have a more informed discussion of this next year. There would be
a new publication on the section and she displayed some of the new
conodont plates. CM Peter Carls had raised major issues but next year we
could decide on this important question. In the year before the meeting
the organisers would compile more data on conodonts from Zinzilban,
European Russia and Salair. The Chairman noted that we needed data about
“species CM
Peter Carls then discussed more Emsian issues. TM Eberhard Schindler
noted that TM Karsten Weddige was undecided what to do about the lower
and upper Emsian and was content to leave the topic to others. TM Nacho
Valenzuela noted that it was important to resolve the base Emsian issues
first. The
Chairman noted the requirement for the mid-Emsian boundary in Zinzilban.
CM Chuck Ver Straeten contributed with an update on the forthcoming work
in the 5.2
Eifelian sub-stages There
is, as yet, nothing defined for possible lower and upper Eifelian stages.
We need to think about this for the future but it was not urgent. CM
Chuck Ver Straten noted that the Eifelian was rather short and contained
2 full sequences plus part of another. It was worth splitting as the
different sequences had very different evolutionary histories and
ecology. CM Mike Murphy offered his Emsian collections from Givetian:
Although not tabled in the agenda there was then a brief discussion on
the sub-division on the Givetian stage. We need to submit a formal
proposal that would then be voted on/agreed/ratified by ICS as if it was
a stage definition. This is the reason that the formal publication in Quart.
Geol has been delayed. Sophie Gouwy then introduced Document 2. The
Chairman commented that with Sarah Aboussalam he had resampled another
Tafilalt section at Jebel Amelane and had located Polygnathus varcus
in a goniatite marker bed, confirming that the zonation works and
supported Document 2. TM Nacho Valenzuela also supported the definition
based on correlative sections in The
Chairman commented on the formal submission of the Givetian sub-division
to the ICS and noted that we should add sequence stratigraphy to the
document. Any relevant data should be sent to CM Pierre Bultynck and
Sophie Gouwy. We also needed other workers (to include data on spores
and brachiopods) to contribute to the definition of the base of the
upper Givetian, and the middle and upper Frasnian. TM Jeff Over is
organising the Frasnian working group. 5.3
Famennian sub-stages The
Chairman introduced the Famennian discussion. He noted that there was an
in press Becker and House paper in the important Document
5 was a report (Ma & Sun) on the brachiopod successions in the
Famennian of South China. The Chairman briefly commented on the
generally low brachiopod turnover in the Famennian. However, CM Denise
Brice added that although she agreed that brachiopod turnover was low in
the upper Famennian, it was greater in the lower Famennian. TM Jeff Over
noted that this was similar to the pattern observed in the conodonts. CM
Peter Carls added that both brachiopods and corals were important in the
definition but that the definition should be based on conodonts. In any
event, there was much work still to be done on the brachiopods and more
reviews are welcomed. Document
6 by CM Maurice Streel was then discussed. The Chairman noted that it
was important to compare it with the account of the Strunian available
online in Geologica Belgica. He agreed that the lower base of Retispora
lepidophyta (base LL) was much lower than the Upper expansa
Zone and that the Strunian in the traditional sense occurs at a higher
level. This was followed by a discussion of the significance of Retispora
lepidophyta and particularly R. lepidophyta minor. The LN
spore zone occurs above the Hangenberg Black Shale and the LE zone in
the Hangenberg Black Shale. However, the base of the LE is not well
correlated. If the Famennian is sub-divided by the base of the Upper expansa
Zone, then this was approximately equivalent to the base of R.
lepidophyta minor. The
Chairman then introduced Document 7 which we had already heard about in
a talk this morning. Palmatolepis gracilis expansa had proved to
be unreliable for defining the base of the Lower expansa zone in
all studied sections, hence other conodonts were used. The question was
asked as to how the Lower expansa was defined. The Chairman also
reported that there were problems with diachroneity in the age of the
Dasberg transgression between German (top of Lower expansa Zone)
and Moroccan (base of Middle expansa Zone) sections. Document
8 was by TM Charlie Sandberg who gave a brief introduction to the
document. He reinforced that the Famennian had to be split into 3
subdivisions rather than 4. The Strunian was difficult to define using
conodonts in the type area and didn’t match to the base of the Upper expansa
Zone. The answers were to the comments by CM Maurice Streel in SDS
Newsletter 22. Charlie had not enjoyed writing the response to
this document. The Secretary commented that we had tried to attempt an
informal solution when CM Maurice Streel came over to the 2006 GSA
meeting in The
Chairman then asked for comments as to how we should proceed on
Famennian sub-division. TM Jeff Over noted that we should look for
disconformities at the base of flooding surfaces in black shales. There
was useful information from Eastern North America on unconformities in
black shales produced by Jürgen Schieber (University of CM
Brooks Ellwood commented that MS was an excellent tool in the Famennian
but that we needed new data. The
Chairman then summarized the issue. We did not yet have the data to make
good progress. We would therefore hold over the discussion to the next
meeting at 5.4
Revision of the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary The
document was tabled and following the talk by CM Sandra Kaiser in the
morning we moved straight onto the discussion. TM Nacho Valenzuela noted
that we needed to agree on the siphonodellid and protognathodid taxonomy.
CM Brooks Ellwood made a plea for the GSSP to have potential for MS and
chemostratigraphy together with the need to co-ordinate with the SCS.
The Chairman replied that he had attended the Carboniferous Congress in 1.
to refine and agree on the conodont taxonomy 2.
to investigate new data 3. to consider the options of a. La Serre at a different level/definition b.
a new section with the original GSSP definition c.
a new section at a different level TM
Charlie Sandberg then proposed that we should suspend discussion of the
D-C boundary indefinitely. The discussion had taken over 50 years and he
had worked on it with CM Maurice Streel since 1969. The present boundary
had been accepted by a 11-0 decision of the working group. The views of
the conodont workers had also been over-ruled at that time. We could
perhaps move the boundary down by 2 to 3 beds and let the matter rest.
In addition it was more the business of the SCS. CM Sandra Kaiser then
raised the difficulties over the application of the same lineage in
other sections. The Chairman emphasized that the presulcata to sulcata
lineage has not been found preserved in any section world-wide. CM
Brooks Ellwood noted that there were excellent section close to La Serre
that would make an easier solution. CM Carlo Corradini reported results
from The
Chairman emphasised the reasons for having a revised GSSP. It should be
the best section in the world and we should be able to restudy it now
and in the future to obtain new information from it using techniques
that we don’t yet know. La Serre does not meet these criteria. The
current GSSP level cannot be correlated with precision into any other
section but, based on its advanced siphonodellids (transitional forms
between sulcata and duplicata) most likely post-dates the
entry of Gattendorfia, which traditionally defined the
Carboniferous. The
Chairman then moved the proposal for a working group. This would include
the discussion of new samples collected from Chinese sections collected
this summer. The members of the working group from the SDS side would be
TM Thomas Becker, CM Sandra Kaiser, CM Carlo Corradini, CM Wang,
Chen-yuan, Ji Qiang, CM Brooks Ellwood, TM John Marshall (spores), CM
Hanna Matyja and CM Denise Brice. Other members would be suggested by
the CSC. The working group would communicate by email rather than formal
meetings.
Corresponding
Members The
chairman noted that CM’s who had gone quiet would be removed although
could still remain as SDS members. These included G. Brock, M.
Dastanpour, Tsien, Hsien-Ho, and Wan yan Chong. The CM status of
Morzadec and Racheboeuf would be held pending enquiries as to their
future plans. Six new CM’s were proposed
These
proposals were approved
by a show of hands with no dissent. Titular
Members The
Chairman noted that the ICS now had more control over the nomination and
retirement of TM’s. We have to submit the names of the TM’s to the
ICS in advance of each IGC and then were only normally permitted two
terms of four years. He reported that both TMs Charlie Sandberg and
Karsten Weddige were both scheduled to retire at the IGC in As
regards the terms of the Chair, Secretary and Vice-Chair there were no
formal rules. Our four year term finishes in 7.
SDS Newsletter and Publications The
next newsletter would be produced in January 2008. The deadline for copy
is the end of December 2007. Therefore we need members news before this
deadline. ALL SDS members are expected to contribute to the
news section. There is also a new publications section that needs
contributions. The Secretary will issue an email newsletter reminder at
the end of November. Other
publications include the Proceedings of the The
Secretary drew the attention of the meeting to the recently published
House volume, Geological Society of London Special Publication 278
and the copy that was on display. A substantial discount was available
using the available flier. The volume was also available digitally on
the Lyell Centre by institution or personal subscription or PPV (pay per
view). Other
volumes that are in progress are the Palaeo3 Middle
Devonian sea-levels and bioevents volume organised by TM Carl Brett.
This currently has 5 contributions. The final date for m/s submission is
the end of January 2008. Another
Geological Society of London Special Publication is in progress
to publish the findings of IGCP 499. This currently has Devonian
contributions from The
proceedings of the Marek
Narkiewicz reported by email that the forthcoming Devonian special issue
of Geological Quarterly (formerly Kwart Geol) will be
published by the end of December The
SDS had this year received $400 from the ICS. There was $256 left over
from last year. All this money would be used to produce and distribute
the newsletter. We have not been able to support travel to the meeting
by an SDS member this year. Last year we were able to get money from an
ICS special fund to enable Vice-chair El Hassani to attend the meeting
in CM
Brooks Ellwood reported on the success in getting oil companies to
contribute funds. His institution had just got $5 million in sponsorship
and the industry was short of biostratigraphers. However, TM Jeff Over
reported that he had tried to get oil company funding for graduate
students for the Our
next meeting is at the IGC in The
meeting in the Kitab Reserve, IGCP
499 have their final meeting in September There
is also a meeting in Further
ahead, ICOS 2009 (11) will be held in TM
Nadya Isokh then made a brief presentation on the Kitab Reserve/Uzbekistan
meeting.
TM
Charlie Sandberg requested clarification as to whether TM’s were
needed to be nominated a year in advance. The Chairman agreed to look
into the rules but noted that there would be an email vote for the new
TM’s from existing TM’s. CM
Carlo Corradini reported that the SSS were meeting in The
meeting closed with refreshments in the Opera House and informal
discussion of a successor to IGCP 499. John
Marshall SDS
Secretary November
2007 |