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Magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and geochronology of Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary sediments, Red Deer Valley

Abstract

Integrated magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data for continental Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary sediments in Alberta allow a correlation with recognised sea floor magnetic anomalies 29 and 30. When compared with data from the marine Gubbio section in Italy, the correlation indicates that extinction of the dinosaurs on land was synchronous with foraminiferal extinctions in the sea which are equated with the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary. We advocate that the base of anomaly 29 be tentatively accepted as the best worldwide physical approximation of the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary. Eleven K–Ar dates on bentonite sanidines near this boundary yield a mean age of 63.1 ± 0.5(2σ) Myr.

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Lerbekmo, J., Evans, M. & Baadsgaard, H. Magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and geochronology of Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary sediments, Red Deer Valley. Nature 279, 26–30 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279026a0

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