Journal of Earth Science, Vol. 29, No. 4, p. 733–744, August 2018 ISSN 1674-487X
Printed in China
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-018-0796-2
Baud, A., 2018. Final Results and Recommendations of the Last 10 Years IGCP 572 and 630 Field Workshops in South Turkey,
Oman, India (Kashmir) and Armenia. Journal of Earth Science, 29(4): 733–744. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-018-0796-2.
http://en.earth-science.net
Invited Review Article
Final Results and Recommendations of the Last 10 Years
IGCP 572 and 630 Field Workshops in South Turkey,
Oman, India (Kashmir) and Armenia
Aymon Baud
BGC, Parc de la Rouvraie 28 CH-1018 Lausanne, Switzerland
ABSTRACT: Being involved in the organization of IGCP 572 field workshops in Turkey (2009), in
Oman (2010), as in the following IGCP 630 field workshops in Kashmir (India, 2014) and in Armenia
(2017), I co-wrote for each of them detailed guidebooks and extended reports that can be found and
downloaded from ResearchGate website. This paper summarizes the final results obtained by IGCP
572 and 630 members from these four important field workshop sites in the past 10 years, and also at-
tempts to make recommendations for future studies based on these unique localities surrounding the
Tethys Ocean. The first field workshop of IGCP 572 was organized in South Turkey in September,
2009, with the logistical support of Dr. Erdal Kosun from the Antalya University. Following the South
Turkey field workshop, eight important papers have been published and concerned the well-preserved
Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) microbialites and their ecosystems (including ostracodes, brachio-
pods, and many of other clades). The 3rd IGCP 572 annual field workshop was held during February,
2010 in the Sultanate of Oman, with Dr. Michaela Bernecker and the deep support from the GuTech
University in Muscat. More than 15 papers have derived from the P-Tr successions that IGCP 572
members have investigated during this workshop, including the first study on oceanic acidification
based on Boron isotopes. New paleontological studies are still on progress, and concern the Smithian
ammonoids, Lower Triassic shark teeth and dental remains as well as basal Triassic conodonts, crino-
ids and ammonoids. The 1st IGCP 630 annual field workshop was held during November, 2014 in Sri-
nagar, Kashmir, and North India, with the helpful assistance of Prof. Ghulam Bhat from Jammu Uni-
versity. This meeting renewed studies on the classic Guryul Ravine and adjacent P-Tr boundary sec-
tions in that region, with new geochemical works on carbon isotopes and pyrite framboids as well as a
detailed Induan conodont taxonomy and zonation. Other new paleontological works concern the paly-
nology of the Guryul Ravine Section as some well-preserved organic eukariotic protist (thecamoebians)
that cross without damage the PTB. Lilit Sahakyan, Aymon Baud, and Zhong-Qiang Chen organized
the 5th IGCP 630 annual conference and field workshop in Armenia on October 8–14, 2017. Several
PTB and Lower Triassic sections have been systematically sampled for biogeochemical and geobiolog-
ical studies. These Armenian sections provide unique paleoenvironmental settings that have the long-
est record, from Griesbachian to Dienerian, of microbial proliferation following the P-Tr mass extinc-
tion in the world. The basal Triassic giant sponge-microbial build-ups are encouraging more compre-
hensive studies on metazoan-microbial reef developments after the greatest extinction event.
KEY WORDS: Permian-Triassic boundary, Lower Triassic, microbialites, southern Turkey, Oman,
Kashmir, Armenia.
0 INTRODUCTION
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction is the largest biocri-
sis of Earth life during the Phanerozoic history (Erwin, 1994).
This topic has attracted many generations of geo-scientists to
work on since 1970s (Nakazawa et al., 1975). To investigate
*Corresponding author: aymon.baud@unil.ch
© China University of Geosciences and Springer-Verlag GmbH
Germany, Part of Springer Nature 2018
Manuscript received June 12, 2018.
Manuscript accepted July 7, 2018.
the biotic extinction patterns, causes, and its global signals of
this biocrisis, many large international collaborative researches
have been undertaken to focus on this topic since 1970s. Of
these, the International Geoscience Program (formerly Interna-
tional Geological Correlation Program, IGCP) projects are one
of the most successful international collaborations working on
the P-Tr mass extinction and recovery. In particular, the recent
two IGCP projects, namely IGCP 572 and 630, have organized
many workshops at most of the well-known PTB and Lower
Triassic sites around the world. These field workshops have
resulted in fruitful results and are greatly beneficious to the
better understanding of the PTB extinction and recovery at a