Apparent Conflicting Permian Ages from Canning Basin Geochronology

U–Pb dating of zircons from thin middle Permian tuffs in the Canning Basin of Western Australia reveals a conflict with established spore-pollen zonation. The youngest tuffs within the Microbaculispora villosa Zone yielded an age of 267.04 ± 0.14 Ma, which is 1.7 million years younger than tuffs associated with the Dulhuntyispora granulata Zone elsewhere in the basin. This dataset, associated with a 2017 journal article, presents the geochronological data underpinning this apparent conflict.

Use Cases

• Calibrating Permian spore-pollen biozones based on radiometric age data
• Investigating facies-dependent biases in palynological assemblages based on depositional environment comparisons
• Refining the temporal framework for the Roadian–Wordian stages in the Canning Basin based on tuff ages
• Assessing the impact of local depositional environments on biostratigraphic correlation based on conflicting age evidence

Strengths

• Provides high-precision CA-IDTIMS U–Pb zircon ages, including one reported as 267.04 ± 0.14 Ma
• Focuses on a specific stratigraphic conflict between geochronology and palynology spanning 350–400 km within the Canning Basin
• Includes contextual data on Late Triassic basaltic sills identified via Ar–Ar dating

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Chemical abrasion-isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (CA-IDTIMS) on zircon from tuff beds.

Time Range

Middle Permian (Roadian–Wordian), specifically around 267 million years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 18:10:22.494649; freshness should be verified

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia, with specific locations including the Pittston SD-1 drillhole.