{40}$Ar/$^{39}$Ar Age of Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Tektites from Haiti

$^{40}$Ar/$^{39}$Ar dating of tektites discovered recently in Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary marine sedimentary rocks on Haiti indicates that the K-T boundary and impact event are coeval at 64.5 ± 0.1 million years ago. Sanidine from a bentonite that lies directly above the K-T boundary in conti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1991-06, Vol.252 (5012), p.1539-1542
Main Authors: Izett, G. A., Dalrymple, G. B., Snee, L. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bentonite
Crystals
Fluence
Geological surveys
Geology
Lasers
Minerals
Prehistoric era
Quartz
Rocks
Tektites
Weighted averages
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Summary:$^{40}$Ar/$^{39}$Ar dating of tektites discovered recently in Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary marine sedimentary rocks on Haiti indicates that the K-T boundary and impact event are coeval at 64.5 ± 0.1 million years ago. Sanidine from a bentonite that lies directly above the K-T boundary in continental, coal-bearing, sedimentary rocks of Montana was also dated and has a $^{40}$Ar/$^{39}$Ar age of 64.6 ± 0.2 million years ago, which is indistinguishable statistically from the age of the tektites.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203