The radiolarian evidence for the accretion of the Fu-saki Formation with the inferred oceanic plate stratigraphy: A case of weakly-metamorphosed accretionary complex in Ishigaki Jima, southern Ryukyu Arc, Japan

The island of Ishigaki Jima, located in the western part of the southern Ryukyu Arc, Japan, is underlain by a basement comprising the Tumuru and Fu-saki formations. The former is a pelitic glaucophane schist with a metamorphic age of 220-190 Ma, and the latter is a weakly metamorphosed accretionary complex, composed mainly of chert, mudstone and sandstone with minor amounts of limestone and mafic rocks. The Fu-saki Formation was weakly metamorphosed at ∼140 Ma. Latest Carboniferous-Early Jurassic microfossils have been obtained from the limestones, cherts and siliceous mudstones of this formation, but no fossils have been collected from the phyllitic mudstones. The radiolarian fauna of the phyllitic mudstones described herein indicates a late Pliensbachian-early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) age. This result, when combined with existing data, enables the reconstruction of an oceanic plate stratigraphy, showing a succession of (in ascending order) Upper Carboniferous-Triassic cherts, Sinemurian-lower Pliensbachian siliceous mudstones and upper Pliensbachian-lower Toarcian phyllitic mudstones and sandstones. The radiolarians from the phyllitic mudstones are important in constraining the timing of the accretion of the Fu-saki Formation to the base of the Tumuru Formation.