Ceremony for Golden Spike of the Global Stratotype Section and Point of the base of the Chattian Stage
May 13, 2017
After years of work, it is with great pleasure that we finally announce that the International Commission of Stratigraphy (ICS) approved, ratified in September 2016 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) at Cape Town, during the International Geological Congress (IGC35), the base of the Chattian Stage at the Monte Cagnero Section, near Urbania, Italy.
We are pleased to announce that the official Ceremony for Golden Spike of the Global Stratotype Section and Point of the base of the Chattian Stage will be held in Urbania and hammered at Monte Cagnero on May 13, 2017.
9:30 Ceremony at the Town Hall of Urbania;
12:00 Placement of the Golden Spike in the Monte Cagnero section
Institutional and academic authorities and members of the International Commission on Stratigraphy and of the International Union of Geological Sciences will attend the event, among others.
The GSSP for the base of the Chattian Stage (Paleogene System, Oligocene Series) is defined at meter level 197 in the Monte Cagnero section, which belongs to the pelagic succession of the Umbria–Marche basin (Urbania, central Italy: 43°38’47.81”N – 12°28’03.83”E). This level with an astronomical age of 27.82 Ma coincides with the highest common occurrence of the planktonic foraminifer Chiloguembelina cubensis at the base of planktonic foraminiferal O5 Zone and falls in the upper part of calcareous nannofossil NP24 Zone, in the lower part of dinocyst Dbi Zone, and in the lower Chron C9n.
Meter level 197 falls thirty cm below the base of a prominent, 40 cm–thick limestone bed in the middle of a recessive, 7 m–thick marly interval. This distinctive lithostratigraphic package is easily recognizable in the MCA section, and useful for recognizing the other lithostratigraphic intervals in this section, as well as in other coeval sections for regional correlation.
References
Coccioni, R., Marsili, A., Montanari, A., Bellanca, A., Neri, R., Bice, D.M., Brinkhuis, H., Church, N., Macalady, A., McDaniel, A., Deino, A., Lirer, F., Sprovieri, M., Maiorano, P., Monechi, S., Nini, C., Nocchi, M., Pross, J., Rochette, P., Sagnotti, L., Tateo, F., Touchard, Y., Van Simaeys, S., and Williams, G.L., 2008, Integrated stratigraphy of the Oligocene pelagic sequence in the Umbria–Marche basin (northeastern Apennines, Italy): a potential Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Rupelian/Chattian boundary: Geological Society of America Bulletin 120, 487–511.
Coccioni, R., Montanari, A., Bice, D.M., Brinkhuis, H., Deino, A., Frontalini, F., Lirer, F., Maiorano, P., Monechi, S., Pross, J., Rochette, P., Sagnotti, L., Sideri, M., Sprovieri, M.,Tateo, F., Touchard, Y., Van Simaeys, S., and Williams, G.L., 2017, The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Chattian Stage (Paleogene System, Oligocene Series) at Monte Cagnero, Italy. Episodes (upcoming)
Maiorano, P., and Monechi, S., 2006, Early to Late Oligocene calcareous nannofossil bioevents in the Mediterranean (Umbria–Marche basin, central Italy): Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 112, 261–273.
