Corona Formation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Corona Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Early Gzhelian ~ | |
.jpg) Monte Corona, Austrian side | |
| Type | Formation |
| Unit of | Pramollo Group |
| Underlies | Auernig Formation |
| Overlies | Pezzul Formation |
| Thickness | 300 m (980 ft) |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Conglomerate |
| Other | Sandstone, mudstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 46°30′N 13°18′E / 46.5°N 13.3°E |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 10°54′N 23°42′E / 10.9°N 23.7°E |
| Region | Kronalpe Udine |
| Country | Austria Italy |
| Extent | Carnian Alps |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Monte Corona |
  Corona Formation (Austria) | |
The Corona Formation is a geologic formation of the Carnian Alps at the border of Austria and Italy. It preserves fossils dated to the Gzhelian stage of the Late Carboniferous period.[1]
The 300-metre (980 ft) thick formation comprises deposited in a deltaic environment. The Corona Formation has provided fossils of fish, brachiopods, a bryozoan, an insect, fossil flora including trunks and ichnofossils ascribed to Limnopus. The tracks from the Corona Formation include the oldest record of tetrapod tracks from the Southern Alps.[2] The rugose coral Amplexus coronae was named after the formation.
The Corona Formation was defined as a formation by Venturini in 1990.[3] It is the lowermost Gzhelian unit in the late Pennsylvanian Pramollo Group, overlying the Kasimovian Pizzul Formation and overlain by the Auernig Formation in the Carnian Alpine border region of Austria and Italy. The mountains Monte Auernig, Monte Carnizza and the eponymous Monte Corona are composed of the formation. The formation is a 300-metre (980 ft) thick succession, characterized by alternating quartz conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones. The conglomerates are coarse infillings of distributary channels in a deltaic environment.[4] The formation is characterized by cyclothems (parasequences) of 30 to 40 metres (98 to 131 ft) thick.[5]