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Kunlein Formation
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Kunlein Fm base reconstruction

Kunlein Fm

Period: 
Ordovician

Age Interval: 
Late Ordovician


Province: 
Myanmar Shan Region

Type Locality and Naming

Shan Mid Plateau, (Pyin Oo Lwin), The Kunlein Fm (Aye Ko Aung 2005, 2012), previously termed the Upper Naungkangyi Series (La Touche 1913), is named after Kunlein village (grid reference 941 524 on the one-inch topographic map, 93 C/5 in Pyin Oo Lwin township, Mandalay region) [Original Publication: Barber, A. J., Khin Zaw & Crow, M. J. (eds) 2017. Myanmar: Geology, Resources and Tectonics. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 48, 317-342]


Lithology and Thickness

Siltstone. It consists of a 200 m thick sequence of well-bedded, siltstone with varicoloured claystone and calcareous shale with some crystalline limestone lenses.

[Figure: Stratigraphical log of the Late Ordovician Kunlein Formation. Type section 909 m west of Kunlein village, Pyin Oo Lwin township, Mandalay Division (after Aung&Cocks, 2017)]


Lithology Pattern: 
Siltstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformable with Panghsapye Fm

Upper contact

Conformable with Sitha Fm

Regional extent

This formation is developed in Shan mid-Plateau. The Kunlein Fm is the lateral equivalent of the Nan-On Fm (Myint Lwin Thein 1973) of Shan State South, and can be correlated with the upper part of the Kaki Bukit Limestone of Pulau Langkawi and mainland Malaysia (Cocks et al. 2005; Lee 2009) and the Pa Kae Fm of southern Thailand (Wongwanich et al. 2002; Ridd 2011).


GeoJSON

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Fossils

This unit has the most abundant fossils in the Lower Palaeozoic of Myanmar, in particular the brachiopods with 37 species described and revised by Cocks & Zhan (1998), the most abundant of which in controlled bulk samples are Leptellina minor Cocks & Zhan, 1998, Dirafinesquina globosa Cocks & Zhan, 1998 and Saucrorthis irravadica (Reed, 1906). Fortey & Cocks (1998) revised the trilobites originally described by Reed (1915) as Dulanaspis, Neseuretus (Neseuritinus), Xuanenia, Ovalocephalus and Hadromeros. There are also bryozoans (Mesotrypa sedavensis, Phyloporina orientalis), a distinctive cystoid fauna (e.g., Caryocrinus) and varied bivalves.


Age 

Late Ordovician

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Katian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
452.75

    Ending stage: 
Hirnantian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
443.07

Depositional setting

The siltstones and limestones of the Kunlein Fm were deposited in a warm, shallow sea with fairly high organic activity.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Aye Ko Aung and L. Robin M. Cocks (Aung & Cocks, Cambrian–Devonian stratigraphy of the Shan Plateau, Myanmar (Burma), Chapter 14 in Barber, A. J., Khin Zaw & Crow, M. J. (eds) 2017. Myanmar: Geology, Resources and Tectonics. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 48, 317-342).