Report 2009-06

Meeting report - 04-06-2009

Present

Frieda Bogemans, Frédéric Boulvain, Marie Coen-Aubert, Michiel Dusar, Eric Goemaere, Luc Hance, Vanessa Heyvaert, Piet Laga, Stephen Louwye, Noël Vandenberghe.

Excused

Alain Herbosch, Jacques Verniers

Stefaan Geets recently passed away, very unexpectedly. He published many papers on the Belgian Tertiary and was a very active member of the Tertiary Subcommission. NCS would like to remember him thankfully for all the work done for the stratigraphic commission.

1. The report from last meeting is approved.

2. Communication from the president about the Quaternary issue :

ICS has organised a final discussion round about the Quaternary issue , proposing three alternatives to its voting members. Voting procedure has been finished and the proposition by the Quaternary community got most support. It means that the Quaternary becomes a Period/System , starting at the base of the Gelasian, and following the Neogene Period/System. The Pleistocene Series/Epoch has its base at the base of the Gelasian . As a consequence the Tertiary seems to disappear, at least for a while, from the official stratigraphic table. This proposition is now being submitted to IUGS for a final ratification.

3. To promote the activities of NCS and the new procedure for approval of lithostratigraphic units, we will include more regularly the list of submitted units on the NCS web page in Miscellanea.

4. The president summarized and clarify the procedure (described in previous report) :

  • 1. Not yet ratified by NCS
  • 2. Accepted by the subcommission and submitted to NCS
  • 3. Accepted by NCS

5. How to regularly update the official lithostratigraphical scheme? Members suggested several options and the President request that the result of our brainstorming is discussed during next meeting :

  • 1. Track the changes using an Excel spreadsheet and refering to already published data.
  • 2. Include figures needed for understanding and not already published.
  • 3. Update/publish a new version of the 2001 volume when justified by enough modifications.

6. Approval/discussion of submitted proposals.

  • 1. Reference sections have to be better localised
  • 2. Authors should refer to 2001 volume and highlight the changes
  • 3. At the request of A. Herbosch, the Lower Palaeozoic formations are not yet ratified. The subdivision of the Jodoigne Fm into units, formally designed, is questionable. Why not give these units the status of members?
  • 4. The Devonian Jupille Fm, the Jemelle Fm, and the Watissart Member of the Esneux Fm are accepted by NCS with some very minor changes requested to authors. The Secretary of the Devonian Subcommission will contact the authors. The lithistratigraphical units which have been newly introduced or emended subsequently to Bultynck & Dejonghe 2001 are listed at the end of the Devonian section on the NCS webpage. These units should be critically reexamined following the new NCS procedure for ratification.
  • 5. A paper on the Carboniferous lithostratigraphy of the Campine Basin is in the process of being published. At this occasion the President makes it clear that no "fait accompli" will be acceptable and that all proposals, even already published in one way or the other , need to be be accepted by the NCS following its procedures. Otherwise no NCS is needed. Science requires that any proposition can be proposed or published, but stratigraphic nomenclature requires some order and that is what NCS will try to do.
  • 6. F. Boulvain reports that the geological mapping of Lorraine region is finished and that it will bring stability to the Jurassic nomenclature. Exchanges with members of the "Groupe français du Trias-Jurassique are in place to improve cross-border corelations.
  • 7. For the Cretaceous, M. Dusar mentions that geologists mapping in the Walloon Region follow their own stratigraphic scheme. The subcommission is concerned by the suitability of these proposed units for mapping. NCS encourages the subcommission to discuss the different schemes in their meetings and to come up with a coherent nomenclature.
  • 8. A large part of the Tertiary volume of the late S. Geets should be included on the NCS webpage as most of the proposed lithostratigraphic units in that volume are well defined and could be easily ratified by NCS.
  • 9. The Quaternary Subcommission will for practical reasons in the next future concentrate on the loess stratigraphy. Many units require a new type locality.

7. Varia

  • 1. The NCS webpage will be reorganized into sections corresponding to each subcommission and should include a discussion forum, news and meeting reports of NCS.
  • 2. Next meeting in December with invitation sent in September

Luc Hance Noël Vandenberghe

Secretary President

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