The challenge of relating the Kasimovian to west European chronostratigraphy: a critical review of the Cantabrian and Barruelian substages of the Stephanian Stage

Abstract

Abstract For the west European regional chronostratigraphic framework, the Cantabrian substage was conceived as covering a widely apparent stratigraphic gap between the top of the Westphalian and the base of Stephanian A, the lowest unit of the Stephanian. A continuous depositional history covers this time gap in the Cantabrian region of Spain; the upper limit of this interval was defined by the succeeding Barruelian substage, equivalent to Stephanian A. Intense tectonic and magmatic activity characterizes this period; the Iberian orogenic belt was an essentially linear feature buckled through the Late Pennsylvanian into the tightly folded Cantabrian Orocline. This evidences an extensive southern foreland to the Variscides, in which the coal-swamp biome persisted through the Late Pennsylvanian, supporting biostratigraphical correlation with the Donbass. New high precision U–Pb CA-ID-TIMS radiometric dating of tonstein horizons supports a preliminary time-framework of regional substages: base of the Asturian (proposed, ex-Westphalian D) c. 310.7 Ma; base of the Cantabrian c. 307.5 Ma; base of the Barruelian (ex-Stephanian A) c. 304.9 Ma; base of the Saberian (proposed) c. 303.5 Ma. The Cantabrian and Barruelian embrace the entire Kasimovian of the global time-scale, and the top of the Barruelian is essentially coincident with the base of the Gzhelian.