The processes that have initiated and terminated shallow-water carbonate platforms throughout Phanerozoic time are a focus of the Global Sedimentary Geology Project. Exposures of an isolated Triassic platform in Guizhou Province, PRC, provide an excellent opportunity to document its birth and death, its internal sedimentary and diagenetic facies patterns, and the transitions into the surrounding deeper water deposits. Other objectives of the field stratigraphic study include documenting the transition from Permian to Triassic, apparently conformable but with a major reduction in platform area, and applying concepts of sequence stratigraphy and cycle analysis to understanding the history of the platform. Fluid inclusions and conodont coloration will be used to establish the post-Triassic thermal history of this area and to evaluate possible trends in heating which may indicate the most favorable areas for hydrocarbon preservation. Conodonts may help improve intercontinental correlations, particularly at the Permo- Triassic boundary.
