Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas

Magnetostratigraphy of the Hell Creek and lower Fort Union Formations in northeastern Montana
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Published:January 01, 2014
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CiteCitation
Rebecca LeCain, William C. Clyde, Gregory P. Wilson, Jeremy Riedel, 2014. "Magnetostratigraphy of the Hell Creek and lower Fort Union Formations in northeastern Montana", Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas, Gregory P. Wilson, William A. Clemens, John R. Horner, Joseph H. Hartman
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Magnetostratigraphic evaluation of a well-exposed stratigraphic section in northeastern Montana has been undertaken to expand upon and better understand the timing of the Hell Creek and Fort Union Formations and the biological processes recorded within them. Characteristic remanent magnetizations show clear magnetostratigraphic patterning of chrons C28n, C28r, C29n, C29r, C30n, and possibly C30r. Differentially corrected global positioning system coordinates, including elevation, were recorded at each sample site, allowing the magnetostratigraphic framework to be precisely relocated in the field and traced laterally across the landscape. In this way, important chronologic boundaries such as the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary can be projected into or above topography of the surrounding region. Localities in Montana that have been sampled for fossil studies were mapped and correlated to the same stratigraphic sections as the magnetostratigraphy, and so they can be compared directly to the geomagnetic polarity time scale. The new magnetostratigraphy can also be used to relate to other basins of Cretaceous and Paleogene age using information independent from biostratigraphic zonation, making it possible to directly compare the composition of coeval faunas from significantly different latitudes.
- biostratigraphy
- biozones
- Cenozoic
- characteristic remanent magnetization
- Cretaceous
- Fort Union Formation
- Global Positioning System
- Hell Creek Formation
- K-T boundary
- lower Paleocene
- magnetization
- magnetostratigraphy
- Mesozoic
- Montana
- North America
- Paleocene
- Paleogene
- patterns
- remanent magnetization
- stratigraphic boundary
- Tertiary
- United States
- Upper Cretaceous
- Williston Basin
- northeastern Montana