SOS ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2002

 

1. Name of constituent body:

Subcommission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (SOS)

 

2. Overall objectives, and Fit within IUGS science policy:

                The Subcommission promotes international cooperation in Ordovician Stratigraphy. Specific 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.

 

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.

 

3. Summary table of Ordovician subdivisions

 

*

 

4.             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.  GOES Program - research committee

Secretary, W.B.N. Berry (U.S.A.)

4 other members

 

5. 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.

 

6. 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

 

7 & 9. Chief accomplishments and Products in 2002:

                a. The GSSP for the base of the Second Stage, yet to be named, for the Ordovician System (upper stage of Lower Ordovician Series) - the base of the Tetragraptus approximatus graptolite Zone in the Diabasbrottet section in southern Sweden - was approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and ratified by the IUGS executive.

                b. the GSSP for the base of the Upper Ordovician Series and the Third Stage (lower stage  of Upper Ordovician Series, yet to be named) - the base of the Nemagraptus gracilis graptolite Zone in the Fågelsång section in Sweden - was approved by the International  Commission on Stratigraphy and ratified by the IUGS executive.

                c. With the help of the Ordovician Stratigraphy Discussion Group website (http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/ ordstrat2/default.htm) discussion continued on the GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series.  The web site proved invaluable in facilitating discussion and making important progress.  Two GSSP proposals have been received - the    FAD of the conodont Protoprioniodus aranda in the Niquivil section in Argentina, and the FAD of the conodont Baltoniodus triangularis in the Huanghuachang section, China. Study of large, diverse conodont collections from the Ibex section in Utah, USA, indicate that the Ibex section is a potential stratotype where the base of the Middle Ordovician Series can be defined on both conodonts and trilobites. New studies of graptolite, conodont, and trilobites faunas in sections in western Newfoundland may prove fruitful in the search for a GSSP, and additional work is being carried out on the Niquivil section. 

                d. A general interest Friends of the Ordovician meeting was attended by 20 participants of the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, Denver, Colorado, November, 2002.

                e. Ordovician News No. 19 was published and distributed electronically in June 2002.

               

8. Chief problems encountered in 2002:

                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 and will limit the number of Voting Members who can participate in future field meetings to evaluate potential stratotype sections.

 

11-14.    Work Plan, Critical Milestones, and Anticipated Results for Next Year:

                a. Ordovician News, No. 20, assembled by G.L. Albanesi, will be published in the Spring 2003 and posted on the Subcommission’s website.

                b. The 9th International Symposium on the Ordovician System will be held in San Juan, Argentina, 18-21 August 2003.  It will be held jointly with the 7th International Graptolite Conference, and a Field Meeting of the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy.  This meeting will include pre- and post-meeting field excursions to the Argentine Precordillera and the Cordillera Oriental, as well as other short excursions.  The Niquivil section (a candidate GSSP - base of Middle Ordovician Series) will be visited and evaluated.  Business Meetings will be devoted to 1) extensive discussion and evaluation of candidate sections and biohorizons for the two GSSPs still to be determined, 2) selection of new Voting members and retirements among existing membership, 3) the future mission of the Ordovician Subcommission, once all GSSPs have been selected, 4) the activities of the Ordovician Subcommission at the 32nd IGC, in particular the symposium session “Global Ordovician Earth System,” and 5) selection of the site and organizers of the 10th ISOS scheduled for 2007.

                c. A goal is to select GSSPs for base of Middle Ordovician Series and for base of upper stage of Upper Ordovician Series, and then to formally name all un-named stages.  Whether this can be attained in 2003 is unknown; however, this will remain the primary focus of the Subcommission until it is completed.

                d. Article on Diabasbrottet GSSP will be submitted to Episodes, with a note that Fågelsång GSSP was published earlier in Episodes.

                e. Dedication ceremonies for the Diabasbrottet and Fågelsång GSSPs in Spring 2003.

 

17. Chief accomplishments/results over the last 5 years (1998-2002):

                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 and ratification 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. Organization of the 9th International Symposium on the Ordovician System in San Juan, Argentina, scheduled for August 2003, in conjunction with the 7th International Graptolite Conference and a Field Meeting of the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy.

                h. Publication of Ordovician News nos. 15-19 and the posting of nos. 16-19 on the Subcommission’s web site.

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

                j.  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.

                k. 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.”

                l. 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.

                m. Sponsorship of special symposium on the Ordovician System at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in 2000, of WOGOGOB 2001 in Copenhagen, and of the meeting and field excursion “The Gondwanan Platform in Ordovician times: Climatic, eustatic and geodynamic evolution”, in Morocco in February 2001.

 

18. Anticipated objectives and work plans for the next 5 years (2003-2008):

                a. Approval and ratification of GSSPs remaining to complete subdivision of Ordovician System with goal of completion and dedication by 2004.

                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 interdisciplinary investigation of the global Ordovician Earth system.