Division and correlation of the Jurassic strata in the Garze-Litang structural zone,western Sichuan and its adjacent areas

The newly-discovered Jurassic strata in the Garze-Litang structural zone,western Sichuan mostly consist of a succession of intermountain basin-continental basic volcanic rocks,mixed marine-continental clastic rocks and shallow-marine platform carbonate formations.The authors in this study give a detailed description of petrography,palaeontology and chronostratigraphy of the Jurassic strata and their correlation with those in the Sichuan Basin,Yunnan,Xizang and Qinghai.The Jurassic strata in western Sichuan may well be compared with those in Xizang and even in the Arab block of Middle East,indicating that the western Sichuan areas are part of the Eurasian continent at least during the Late Jurassic.