Permian Tuff Zircon Ages and Palynology Data from Western Australia

U–Pb dating of zircons from middle Permian tuffs in the Canning Basin reveals an apparent 1.7-million-year conflict with established spore-pollen zonation. The dataset, published in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences in 2017, includes CA-IDTIMS ages and palynological zone information from core holes spanning 350–400 km. It highlights a potential local environmental influence on fossil assemblages and cautions against direct facies comparison.

Use Cases

• Calibrating Permian spore-pollen biozones based on radiometric ages mentioned in the description
• Analyzing facies-dependent biases in palynological assemblages as discussed
• Modeling depositional timelines for the Roadian–Wordian stages using conflicting age data
• Investigating local versus regional signals in fossil records from the Canning Basin

Strengths

• Includes precise CA-IDTIMS U–Pb ages with a reported uncertainty of ±0.14 Ma
• Data spans a significant geographic transect of 350–400 km within the Canning Basin
• Contextualizes findings with Ar–Ar dating of intrusive sills, providing additional geological constraints

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, requiring manual inspection after download
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and structure must be verified
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific study locations

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Chemical abrasion-isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (CA-IDTIMS) on zircon samples and palynological analysis.

Time Range

Middle Permian (Roadian–Wordian stages), approximately 267 million years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 18:47:13.409023; freshness should be verified

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia.