| Cambrian Wulingian Series is distributed widely in South China, which shows southeastward deepening marine sedimentary environments that are carbonate platform, carbonate platform edge, upper slope, lower slope and basin in sequence in NE-SW zonal distribution. Rock samples are selected from western Hubei, central Hunan, and southern Hunan-southern Jiangxi areas. The geochemical characteristics of trace elements and REE in samples indicates that the whole South China was in an oxygen-poor to anaerobic marine environment but an oxidic environment locally in western Hubei during Wulingian Epoch. Water was perhaps shallower in depth in southern Hunan-southern Jiangxi area than that in the central Hunan area, which means possible existence of an ancient land in the southeast of South China. It is implied that the sediment provenance was derived stably from the upper crust in the northwest and the provenance area probably is under the tectonic setting of continental island arc or the active continental margin. |
