SOS ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2001

1. Name of subcommission

Subcommission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (SOS).

2. Overall objectives

The Subcommission promotes international cooperation in Ordovician Stratigraphy. Objectives are:

a. To delimit and subdivide the Ordovician System (and Period) as a part of the overall ICS mission to elaborate the standard global stratigraphic scale. This work aims to establish the boundaries (GSSPs), the correlation of the subdivisions (Stages and Series), and the nomenclature of the subdivisions.

b. To promote regular international meetings on aspects of Ordovician geology, especially those devoted to clarifying stratigraphic procedures, nomenclature and methods for use in establishing a unified global time scale, and to prepare correlation charts with explanatory notes (this latter task now completed).

c. To encourage, promote, and support research on all aspects of Ordovician geology worldwide and to provide outlets, Ordovician News, international meetings, and a web page, for promoting discussions and reporting results of this research.

d. To encourage, promote, and support interdisciplinary research on the Ordovician global Earth system, addressing topics that require high-resolution, global correlation.

3. Summary table of Ordovician subdivisions

4. Fit within IUGS science policy

The ultimate goal of the Subcommission is to provide a high-resolution geological time scale that will be a critical foundation for interdisciplinary research on the global Earth system during the Ordovician Period. The work is broad based and must include specialists in paleontology, all subdisciplines of stratigraphy (bio-, litho-, chemo-, and magneto-), sedimentology, geochemistry, and tectonics. With active participants from more than 25 countries, the Subcommission involves much of the global geological community.

5. Organization

a. Subcommission Executive

Chairperson, S.C. Finney (U.S.A.)

Vice-chairperson, Chen Xu (P.R. China)

Secretary, G.L. Albanesi (Argentina)

17 other Voting Members

92 Corresponding Members

b. Informal intra-Ordovician Working Groups

Conveners of these groups are as follows:

(i) base of laevis (base of Middle Ordovician Series) - R. Ethington, S. Finney, (ii) base of ordovicicus (base of upper Stage of Upper Ordovician Series) - S. Bergström and C.R. Barnes

c. GOES Program - research committee

Secretary, W.B.N. Berry (U.S.A.) 4 other members (R. Astini, C. Barnes, S. Bergström, and S. Finney).

6. Extent of national/regional/global support from sources other than IUGS

SOS receives no formal support from international organizations outside IUGS/ICS. The activities of some Subcommission members (voting and corresponding) have been supported in part by IGCP 410. Independent support for projects comes mainly from individual Ordovician workers, through their employer organizations and through individual to multidisciplinary, cooperative, team activities supported by grants from national/regional government-funded bodies. In late 2000, SOS received grants from the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Funds and International Division of the Geological Society of America to support the travel of several non-North American colleagues to the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (Reno, Nevada; November 2000), where the Subcommission organized a symposium session and a field excursion on selection of a GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series.

7. Interface with other international projects

The membership of the Subcommission both geographically and in terms of research interests effectively reflects available expertise in aspects of Ordovician stratigraphy.

The Subcommission has no formal links with other global projects, though some individual. Ordovician workers are members of IGCP projects, most notably the following: Project 386: Response of the Ocean/Atmosphere System to Past Global Changes Project 410: The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

8. Chief accomplishments in 2001

a. The base of the Tetragraptus approximatus graptolite Zone in the Diabasbrottet section in southern Sweden was approved by the Subcommission as the GSSP for the base of the Second Stage, yet to be named, for the Ordovician System (upper stage of Lower Ordovician Series). The vote was Yes - 20, No - 1. The proposal is now before the ICS for a vote of approval.

b. In early November 2001, the base of the Nemagraptus gracilis graptolite Zone in the Fågelsång section in Sweden was approved by the Subcommission as the GSSP for the base of the Upper Ordovician Series. The vote was Yes - 18, No - 0, abstain - 2. The proposal is now before the ICS for a vote of approval.

c. An Ordovician Stratigraphy Discussion Group website: http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/ordstrat2/default.htm was set up to facilitate discussion on the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series. Posted reports described serious deficiencies with the proposed biohorizon and stratotype section (the base of the Tripodus laevis conodont Zone at Whiterock Narrows, Nevada) and proposed other biohorizons and stratotype sections for the GSSP. The web site proved invaluable in facilitating discussion and making important progress.

d. At a Subcommission business meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in November, 2001 (at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America), the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series was a major topic of discussion. The consensus of those in attendance was to consider a new biohorizon (the FAD of the conodont Protoprioniodus aranda) and new candidate stratotype sections. A report of this meeting is now being distributed to all voting members, requesting their comments and opinions. If a majority wish to consider the new biohorizon, the Subcommission will move quickly to consider potential stratotype sections and to evaluation the correlation potential of the biohorizon. A general interest Friends of the Ordovician meeting was attended by 45 participants of the GSA meeting, and 15 papers were presented in a topical session titled “New insights into Late Ordovician Climate, Oceanography, and Tectonics.”

e. The GOES (Global Ordovician Earth Systems) Program stimulated research on the Late Ordovician mass extinction as recorded in stratigraphic successions in the Carnic Alps, the results of which will be incorporated with those from similar integrated multi-disciplinary studies of Late Ordovician successions in Nevada.

f. The Subcommission sponsored a successful meeting and field excursion in Morocco, 30 January to 7 February, 2001 with the title “The Gondwanan Platform during Ordovician times: Climatic, eustatic and geodynamic evolution.” The field excursion examined Ordovician strata in the coastal Meseta, central High Atlas, and central-eastern Anti-Atlas.

g. The WOGOGOB (Working Group on Ordovician Geology of the Baltic) held its biennial meeting 16-17 May 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark with a field excursion to Scania, Sweden, 18-20 May 2001.

h. On May 31, 2001, a formal ceremony took place at Green Point, western Newfoundland for dedication of the GSSP for the base of the Ordovician System.

9. Chief problems encountered in 2001

The lack of travel support limited the participation of Voting Members from outside North America in Subcommission activities at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America.

The only candidate stratotype section and the biohorizon chosen for defining the base of the Middle Ordovician Series were found to be deficient. As a result, the Subcommission must evaluate a new biohorizon and candidate stratotype sections.

10. Chief products in 2001

a. An 94-page issue of Ordovician News, No. 18, edited by G.L. Albanesi, was published and posted on the Subcommission’s web page (http://ceor.seos.uvic.ca/Ordovician/).

11. Work plan for next year

a. Ordovician News, No. 19, assembled by G.L. Albanesi, will be published in the Spring 2002.

b. It is anticipated that the GSSPs for the base of the second stage of the Ordovician System (upper stage of Lower Ordovician Series; yet to be named) and for the base of the Upper Ordovician Series (and its lowest stage; yet to be named) will be approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in late 2001 and ratified by IUGS in 2002.

c. Voting members are presently being consulted regarding the course to take on selection of a GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series. Options are to consider new candidate stratotype sections for the FAD of the conodont Tripodus laevis or, instead, to choose a new biohorizon (the FAD of the conodont Protoprioniodus aranda) for definition of the boundary. A decision on the biohorizon will be made by the end of 2001, and a strict deadline of 3 months will be set for submission of potential candidate stratotype sections. The best potential candidate stratotype section is at Niquivil in the Precordillera of Argentina. A field business meeting is planned for November 2002 to visit this section; it will be in conjunction with the biennial meeting of the Argentine Congress on Paleontology and Biostratigraphy. Investigations of other candidate sections may be needed, but the Subcommission’s goal is to be evaluating and possibly voting on stratotype sections before the end of 2002.

d. The Working Group on the GSSP for the base of the upper stage of the Upper Ordovician Series has been dormant, while the Subcommission concentrated its efforts on other stage and series boundaries. However, now that GSSP will receive considerable attention. The Working Group is being reconstituted. Candidate stratotype sections will be evaluated in 2002. Whether or not voting takes place in 2002 depends on the progress of the Working Group.

e. The steering committee of the GOES (Global Ordovician Earth Systems) Program will be encouraging work towards, and recruiting papers for, a symposium session that the Subcommission will sponsor at the 32nd IGC. The session title is titled “Global Ordovician Earth System.”

12. Critical milestones to be achieved next year

a. Approval by ICS and ratification by IUGS of Diabasbrottet and Fågelsång GSSPs.

b. Evaluation of new biohorizon for base of Middle Ordovician Series and of candidate stratotype sections, especially the section at Niquivil in the Argentina Precordillera.

c. Evaluation of candidate stratotype sections for base of upper stage of Upper Ordovician Series.

13. Anticipated results/products next year

a. Publication of Ordovician News No. 19.

b. Determination of biohorizon for base of Middle Ordovician Series and identification and evaluation of candidate stratotype sections.

c. If progress is rapid on identification and evaluation of candidate stratotype sections, approval of GSSP for upper stage of Upper Ordovician Series.

14. Communication plans

a. Ordovician News will be published each spring and posted on the Subcommission’s web site. A limited number of hard copies will be printed for archives and for distribution to members requesting hard copies.

b. The web site for the Ordovician Stratigraphy Discussion Group will continue active use. Its primary focus is the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series. However, it will evolve to include discussions of other topics.

c. The 9th International Symposium on the Ordovician System will be held in San Juan, Argentina in August 2003. A web site is being constructed for dissemination of information, circulars, and registration for the meeting.

d. The Subcommission Chair will spend March to July 2002 in Austria. During that time, he will schedule a formal Subcommission Business meeting for members in Europe. The purpose of the meeting will be to further discussions on the two boundaries still to be defined.

e. A Subcommission business meeting will be scheduled at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America to be held in Denver, Colorado in October 2002. The purpose will be to discuss candidate stratotype sections for the base of the upper stage of the Upper Ordovician Series. Most members of the boundary working group are located inNorth America as are some of the best potential stratotype sections. Funding will be sought to support the travel of working group members located outside North America.

15. Potential funding sources outside IUGS

California State University at Long Beach will support most of the Chair’s travel expenses to the Geological Society of America meeting. The Chair will apply for a research grant for a project in Argentina. If funded, he will travel to Argentina with grant support for field research at the time of the meeting on the Niquivil section. Thus, he will not need to use Subcommission funds for that purpose and the request in next year’s budget can be used instead to further support the travel of other members of the boundary working group.Those proposing candidate stratotype sections for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series or the base of the upper stage of the Upper Ordovician Series will need to apply to foundations, their institutions, and other sources for support of any additional investigations of the sections that might be needed.

16. Chief accomplishments/results over the last 5 years (1997-2001)

a. Approval, ratification, and dedication of the Green Point GSSP for the base of the Ordovician System.

b. Approval, ratification, and dedication of the Huangnitang GSSP for the base of the Darriwilian Stage (upper stage of Middle Ordovician Series).

c. Approval by the Subcommission of the Diabasbrottet and Fågelsång GSSPs for the bases of the upper stage of the Lower Ordovician Series and the Upper Ordovician Series, respectively.

d. Significant progress on definition of series and stages for the Ordovician System with only two GSSPs remaining to be selected and approved by the Subcommission.

e. With publication in 2000 of A Revised Correlation of Ordovician Rocks in the British Isles, correlation charts have been completed for Ordovician rocks on all continents.

f. 8th International Symposium on the Ordovician System in Prague, Czech Republic in July 1999, and publication of a 543 page proceedings volume (Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Geologica, v. 43, no. 1/2). 147 participants represented 21 countries; 142 papers were presented in technical sessions.

g. Publication of Ordovician News nos. 14-18 and the posting of nos. 16-18 on the Subcommission’s web site.

h. Development of the web site “Ordovician Stratigraphy Discussion Group” to facilitate discussions on selection of the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician.

i. Sponsorship of a technical session and field excursion on the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in November 2000.

j. Sponsorship at the 31st International Geological Congress of the symposium “Paleontological, stratigraphical, and paleogeographical relations among South America, Laurentia, Avalonia, and Baltica during the Ordovician.”

k. Launched GOES (Global Ordovician Earth System) Program to stimulate integrated multi-disciplinary studies of global events (mass extinction, sea-level changes, greenhouse conditions, tectonics) during the Ordovician Period.

17. Anticipated objectives and work plans for the next 5 years (2002-2006)

a. Approval and ratification of GSSPs remaining to complete subdivision of Ordovician System with goal of completion by 2003.

b. 9th International Symposium on Ordovician System to be held in Argentina in August 2003.

c. Sponsorship of “Global Ordovician Earth Systems” symposium at 32nd International Geological Congress in 2004.

d. Redirection of Subcommission’s focus to inter-disciplinary investigation of the global Ordovician Earth system.