Kuiper, K. F.; Deino, A.; Hilgen, F. J.; Krijgsman, W.; Renne, P. R.; Wijbrans, J. R. (2008): Synchronizing rock clocks of Earth history. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, United States, Science, 320 (5875), 500-504, georefid:2008-094417
Abstract:
Calibration of the geological time scale is achieved by independent radioisotopic and astronomical dating, but these techniques yield discrepancies of approximately 1.0% or more, limiting our ability to reconstruct Earth history. To overcome this fundamental setback, we compared astronomical and (super 40) Ar/ (super 39) Ar ages of tephras in marine deposits in Morocco to calibrate the age of Fish Canyon sanidine, the most widely used standard in (super 40) Ar/ (super 39) Ar geochronology. This calibration results in a more precise older age of 28.201 + or - 0.046 million years ago (Ma) and reduces the (super 40) Ar/ (super 39) Ar method's absolute uncertainty from approximately 2.5 to 0.25%. In addition, this calibration provides tight constraints for the astronomical tuning of pre-Neogene successions, resulting in a mutually consistent age of approximately 65.95 Ma for the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary.
Coverage:
West: -13.1500 East: 4.3000 North: 43.4500 South: 27.4000
West: NaN East: NaN North: NaN South: NaN
West: NaN East: NaN North: NaN South: NaN
Data access: