Shale Sedimentary Characteristics and Organic Matter Accumulation

During the Late Ordovician to Early Silurian period, South China was located in the northeast margin of Gondwanaland near the paleo-equator (Metcalfe in Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Palaeogeography of Eastern Pangea and Tethys, 97–112, 1994; Cocks and Torsvik in Earth-Sci Rev 117:40–79, 2013; Fig. 3.1a). It was a separated plate (Wang et al. 1993; Su et al. in Gondwana Res 15:111–130, 2009; Li et al. in Geol Soc Am Bull 122:772–793, 2010; Fig. 3.1b) that was considered to be a part of the Tethyan-Archipelagic ocean system (Yin in J Earth Sci 24(1):1–12, 1999; Metcalfe in J Asian Earth Sci 66:1–33, 2013).