Synchronizing Rock Clocks of Earth History

DOI Web Site 31 Citations
  • K. F. Kuiper
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • A. Deino
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • F. J. Hilgen
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • W. Krijgsman
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • P. R. Renne
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • J. R. Wijbrans
    Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.

Bibliographic Information

Published
2008-04-25
DOI
  • 10.1126/science.1154339
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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Description

<jats:p> Calibration of the geological time scale is achieved by independent radioisotopic and astronomical dating, but these techniques yield discrepancies of ∼1.0% or more, limiting our ability to reconstruct Earth history. To overcome this fundamental setback, we compared astronomical and <jats:sup>40</jats:sup> Ar/ <jats:sup>39</jats:sup> Ar ages of tephras in marine deposits in Morocco to calibrate the age of Fish Canyon sanidine, the most widely used standard in <jats:sup>40</jats:sup> Ar/ <jats:sup>39</jats:sup> Ar geochronology. This calibration results in a more precise older age of 28.201 ± 0.046 million years ago (Ma) and reduces the <jats:sup>40</jats:sup> Ar/ <jats:sup>39</jats:sup> Ar method's absolute uncertainty from ∼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 ∼65.95 Ma for the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. </jats:p>

Journal

  • Science

    Science 320 (5875), 500-504, 2008-04-25

    American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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