| Gzhelian | |
| Color: | Gzhelian |
| Time Start: | 303.7 |
| Time Start Uncertainty: | 0.1 |
| Time End: | 298.9 |
| Time End Uncertainty: | 18.9 |
| Caption Map: | Type locality for the Gzhelian in Gzhel, Russia |
| Timeline: | Carboniferous |
| Name Formality: | Formal |
| Celestial Body: | earth |
| Usage: | Global (ICS) |
| Timescales Used: | ICS Time Scale |
| Chrono Unit: | Age |
| Strat Unit: | Stage |
| Type Section: | Gzhel horizon, Ghzel, Moscow Oblast, Russia |
| Timespan Formality: | Formal |
| Lower Boundary Def: | Not formally defined |
| Lower Def Candidates: | FAD of the Conodont Idiognathodus simulator[1] |
| Lower Gssp Candidates: |
|
| Upper Boundary Def: | FAD of the Conodont Streptognathodus isolatus within the morphotype Streptognathodus wabaunsensis chronocline |
| Upper Gssp Location: | Aidaralash, Ural Mountains, Kazakhstan |
| Upper Gssp Accept Date: | 1996 |
The Gzhelian is an age in the ICS geologic time scale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest stage of the Pennsylvanian, the youngest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Gzhelian lasted from to Ma.[2] It follows the Kasimovian age/stage and is followed by the Asselian age/stage, the oldest subdivision of the Permian system.
The Gzhelian is more or less coeval with the Stephanian Stage of the regional stratigraphy of Europe.
The Gzhelian is named after the Russian village of Gzhel (Russian: Гжель), nearby Ramenskoye, not far from Moscow. The name and type locality were defined by Sergei Nikitin (1851–1909) in 1890.
The base of the Gzhelian is at the first appearance of the Fusulinida genera Daixina, Jigulites and Rugosofusulina, or at the first appearance of the conodont Streptognathodus zethus. The top of the stage (the base of the Permian system) is at the first appearance of the conodont Streptognathodus isolatus within the Streptognathus "wabaunsensis" chronocline.[3] 6m (20feet) higher in the reference profile, the Fusulinida species Sphaeroschwagerina vulgaris aktjubensis appears.
Currently, a golden spike for the base of the Gzhelian Stage has not been allocated. A candidate is a section along the Ussolka river (a tributary of the Belaya river) at the edge of the hamlet of Krasnoussolsky, about southeast of Ufa and northeast of Sterlitamak (in Bashkortostan).[4]
The Gzhelian Stage is subdivided into five biozones, based on the conodont genus Streptognathodus: