ICS guidelines
The NCS forms part of a wider stratigraphic community. It follows the worldwide standards set by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). The ICS provides an extensive Stratigraphic Guide <https://stratigraphy.org/guide/> as a framework for uniform principles, structure, naming, etc.
Chapter 3B, sections 3 and 4 provide guidelines on the naming and use of stratigraphic unit names.
Of particular interest in the regional use of stratigraphic names are the following (parts of) articles:
- a.ii. Spelling of Geographic Names: The spelling of the geographic component of the name of a stratigraphic unit should conform to the usage of the country of origin. The spelling of the geographic component, once established, should not be changed. The rank or lithologic component may be changed when translated to a different language.
- a.v. Duplication of Geographic Names: The name of a new stratigraphic unit should be unique in order to prevent ambiguity.
- b. Unit-term Component of Names of Stratigraphic Units: The unit-term component of a stratigraphic name indicates the kind and rank of the unit. A stratigraphic unit-term may differ in different languages.
- c. Recommended Editorial Procedures: The editorial rules and procedures enumerated below apply to the English language. Rules of orthography of other languages may make these recommendations inapplicable.
- c.i. Capitalization: The first letters of all words used in the names of formal stratigraphic units are capitalised (except for the trivial names of species and subspecies rank in the names of biostratigraphic units). Informal terms are not capitalised.
- c.ii. Hyphenation: Compound terms for most kinds of stratigraphic units, in which two common words are joined to give a special meaning, should be hyphenated, e.g. concurrent-range zone, normal-polarity zone. Exceptions are adjectival prefixes or combining forms that are generally combined with the term-noun without a hyphen, e.g. biozone.
- c.iii. Repetition of the Complete Name: After the complete name of a stratigraphic unit has been referred to once in a publication, part of the name may be omitted for brevity if the meaning is clear, e.g., the Oxfordian Stage may be referred to as “the Oxfordian”, or “the Stage”.
The NCS governs the stratigraphy of Belgium, with three national languages, Dutch, French and German. For (scientific) use in English, the NCS proposes the use of ICS rules.
It is recognised by the ICS that orthographic rules of other languages can be different.
For example, in Dutch, historical time periods should be written without capital, but can be written in capital in specialised documents. (Taalunie <https://taaladvies.net/pleistoceen-hoofdletter/>). In order to maintain uniformity and follow common practice in geosciences and its publications, the NCS proposes a unified use of capitalization across the national languages and have the first letter of each word capitalised (e.g. Cretaceous, Krijt, Crétacé, Kreide), including derivations such as adjectives.
In addition, formal stratigraphic units have a proper name, usually consisting of a geographic name and a unit term (e.g. Boom Formation). These form a single unit, with the geographic name following its official capitalization, and the unit term capitalised too. With informal or disused unit names, the unit term is not capitalised (e.g. the former Veldhoven member is now the Veldhoven Formation).
Belgium-Dutch translation of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart
On the ICS website it is possible to provide translations of the English International Chronostratigraphic Chart. The Stratigraphic Commission of TNO-Geological Survey of the Netherlands uses terms that are not common in Flanders and therefore the NCS has decided to offer its own Belgium-Dutch translation to the ICS website. The ICS hereby refers to the analogy on their website of the two translations in Spanish and in American Spanish. There has been preceding communication about this issue with TNO-Geologische Dienst Nederland and the ICS. The Belgium-Dutch translation was created through mutual consultation among the Dutch-speaking members of NCS (2017).
- The starting point is that English-language terms are translated into Dutch as best as possible. Therefore, basically, the “-ian” suffix is translated to “-iaan” in Dutch, and not to “-ien” as is common in the Netherlands. In Wikipedia, the “-ien” terms are indicated as default and “-iaan” is indicated in parentheses as a Flemish variant. The “-iaan” suffix is a correct orthographic translation from English into Dutch.
- Cambrium, Ordovicium, Siluur, Devoon, Carboon, Perm, Trias, Jura, Krijt, Paleogeen and Neogeen are terms traditionally used in Flanders, just as in the Netherlands, and are so retained.
- For the spelling of the term Quartair, the justification is the “Groene Boekje” of the Nederlandse Taalunie. This spelling has long been in use in Flanders and was also used in the book Geologie van Vlaanderen (2015, Academia Press).
- Fanerozoïcum, Paleozoïcum, Mesozoïcum, Cenozoïcum, etc. have a preferred spelling on Wikipedia and are long-established in Flanders. This spelling is also used in the book Geologie van Vlaanderen (2015, Academia Press)
- In the Precambrian, Proterozoïcum as well as Meso-proterozoïcum are common in Flanders, as in the version of TNO-Geological Survey of the Netherlands. The suffixes “-ium” and “-eïcum” used for other subdivisions of the Precambrian in the version of TNO-Geological Survey of the Netherlands are unusual in Flanders. The NCS therefore consistently follows the principle of translating the English chart suffixes “-ian” and “-an” in Dutch by “-iaan” and “-aan”. Therefore, in the Belgium-Dutch table, the terms Hadeaan, Archeaan (as well as Eo-archeaan etc.), Sideriaan, Rhyaciaan, Orosiriaan, Statheriaan, Calymmiaan, Ectasiaan, Steniaan, Toniaan and Cryogeniaan and Ediacaraan have been used.
- The NCS has consistently translated the terms Lower and Upper in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart as Onder and Boven, respectively. In the Geological Time Scales, Early and Late (Vroeg en Laat) will be used. The distinction between Lower/Upper and Early/Late in the stratigraphy serves to indicate the distinction between time, e.g. during the Early Cretaceous many ammonites developed, and the layers deposited at a time, e.g. the layers of chalk in Hainaut and in Limburg can be correlated and belong to the Upper Cretaceous. This distinction is sometimes subtle and often both can be used. Moreover, it is not always consistently applied in the literature. Therefore, there is a tendency in stratigraphy to abandon this double nomenclature. Until present, the ICS has not made a decision on this.
