According to this system, 11 of 72 defined Global Stratotype Section and Points (GSSPs) are in China. Its initial priority was to establish a precisely defined chronostratigraphic system globally applicable to all geoscientific fields. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was founded in 1965. and quantitative stratigraphy and temporal and spatial distrbutions of natural resources based on big data. The issue also suggests that further refinement of chronostratigraphy and timescales in China should focus on high-quality systematic taxonomic studies of different fossil groups, using technologies including: high-resolution biostratigraphy multidisciplinary approaches including high-precision geochronology, isotope chemostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and astronomical cyclostratigraphy etc. This special issue highlights these advances. Over the last decade, new technologies and more high-resolution biostratigraphic work have helped improving the formulation of stratigraphic frameworks and timescales in China. Such timescales also serve as an important reference for geological mapping in China and for intercontinental and regional correlations, which benefit all geologic disciplines and the exploration of natural resources. Consequently, establishing timescales provides a means for precisely calibrating various major geologic and biological events. The stratigraphic record represents a massive archive for illuminating the structure and dynamics of various biological and environmental events in deep time. RONG Jiayu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research summarizes the latest advances in stratigraphy and timescale as well as discusses the correlation among different blocks in China and with international timescales.

New integrative stratigraphy and timescales for 13 geological periods in China from the Ediacaran to the Quaternary have recently been published in a special issue of SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences.

Stratigraphy program