HR: 10:35h
AN: GP52A-02 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: Closing the Mid- Paleocene gap: toward a complete astronomically calibrated Paleocene Epoch at Zumaia (Basque Basin, W Pyrenees)
AU: * Dinares-Turell, J
EM: dinares@ingv.it
AF: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata, 605, Rome, I-00143,
Italy
AU: Baceta, J
EM:
AF: Dpt. de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. Ciencias, Basque Country Univ., Ap. 644, Bilbao,
E-48080, Spain
AU: Bernaola, G
EM:
AF: Dpt. de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. Ciencias, Basque Country Univ., Ap. 644, Bilbao,
E-48080, Spain
AU: Orue-Etxebarria, X
EM:
AF: Dpt. de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. Ciencias, Basque Country Univ., Ap. 644, Bilbao,
E-48080, Spain
AU: Pujalte, V
EM:
AF: Dpt. de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. Ciencias, Basque Country Univ., Ap. 644, Bilbao,
E-48080, Spain
AB:
The ~10 Myr long Paleocene Epoch is bounded by two of the most popular and studied chronostratigraphic limits,
the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at its base and the Paleocne/Eocene (P/E) boundary at the top. The
Paleocene time scale has relied on an age model for magnetic polarity chrons derived from a cubic-spline fit of
marine magnetic anomaly pattern in the South Atlantic to two radiometrically dated calibration points (Cande &
Kent, 1992, 1995). These include an age of 65 Ma for the K/T boundary (66 Ma in the CK92 time scale) and a
derived age of 55 Ma for the P-E boundary (this age constrained from 40Ar/39Ar dated volcanic ash layers within a
clay sequence in Denmark). An age of 65.5±0.3 Ma for the K/T and 55.8±0.2 Ma for the P/E are taken in
the most recent time scale GTS2004 (Gradstein et al, 2004) which combines both isotopically (using a 28.02 Ma
age for the Fish Canyon Sanidine FCT monitor standard) and astronomically derived ages in the Neogene.
However, intercalibration of single crystal sanidine dates of primary ash layers in astronomically dated sections
arrives at an astronomically calibrated age of 28.24±0.1 Ma for the FCT standard (Hilgen et al., 2006), which
will suggest an ~1% underestimate in current Paleogene ages. Thus, the astronomically tuned chronology for
the (hemi)-pelagic basal Paleocene succession at Zumaia (Dinarès-Turell et al, 2003) that arrives an estimated
age of ~65.8 Ma for the K/T appears consistent. In that study an ~4 Myr long tuned chronology based on the R7 full
numerical solution for the Solar System of Varadi et al. (2003) we presented. However, more recently a second
solution has been proposed (La04, Laskar et al., 2004), which differs notably in the Paleocene with respect R7
(offsets between the ~2.25 Myr long-term cycles). The differences arise from the uncertainty due to the chaotic
behaviour of the inner planets to some resonant argument that limits an accurate age determination of
successive minima in this very long eccentricity cycle. It is interesting to note, however, that in the Paleocene both
solutions share one of such nodes of reduced eccentricity amplitude at about 62.2 Ma, which was the feature
used as starting point in our tuning at Zumaia. Recent tuning efforts of hyperthermal events within the lower
Cenozoic greenhouse climate record documented in Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) core sediments (Lourens et
al., 2005) have provided tuned ages for the P/E thermal maximum using both the La04 and R7 astronomical
target solutions (~55.270 Ma and ~55.675 Ma respectively) and showed that hyperthermal events correspond to
maxima in the ~405-kyr and ~100-kyr eccentricity cycles that postdate prolonged minima in the 2.25-Myr
eccentricity cycle. Here, we present integrated magnetostratigraphy and calcareous plankton biostratigraphy for
the Mid Paleocene interval at Zumaia and evaluate the lithologic cyclicity using spectral analysis on magnetic
susceptibility and CaCO3 proxy records. Considering that a previous study in the uppermost Paleocene interval
included the record of chron C25n (Dinarès-Turell et al., 2002), all Paleocene reversals have now been identified
at Zumaia, and a complete tuned Paleocene record is possible, rendering Zumaia an exceptional section.
Implications for the definition of the Selandian stage, the absolute ages of chron C26r and the Mid-Paleocene
Biotic Event (MPBE)) will be also considered.
DE: 1520 Magnetostratigraphy
DE: 1535 Reversals: process, timescale, magnetostratigraphy
DE: 4910 Astronomical forcing
DE: 4944 Micropaleontology (0459, 3030)
DE: 4948 Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum
SC: Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism [GP]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly