Recently reported radioisotopic dates and magnetic anomaly spacings have made it evident that modification is required for the age calibrations for the geomagnetic polarity timescale of Cande and Kent (1992) at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary and in the Pliocene. An adjusted geomagnetic reversal chronology for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic is presented that is consistent with astrochronology in the Pleistocene and Pliocene and with a new timescale for the Mesozoic. The age of 66 Ma for the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/P) boundary used for calibration in the geomagnetic polarity timescale of Cande and Kent [1992] (hereinafter referred to as CK92) was supported by high precision laser fusion Ar/Ar sanidine single crystal dates from nonmarine strata in Montana. However, these age determinations are now considered to be anomalously old due to problems with sample preparation [Swisher et al., 1992, 1993]. A consensus is developing for an age of 65 Ma for the K/P boundary as recorded in marine [Swisher et al., 1992; Dalryrnple et al., 1993] and nonmarine [Swisher et al., 1993] sediments, and the 65 Ma age has been adopted, for example, as an anchor point in the Mesozoic timescale of Gradstein et al. [1994]. Astrochronologic control for the geomagnetic polarity timescale has been developed by Shackleton et al. [1990] and Hilgen [1991] for the Pleistocene and Pliocene to the base of the Thvera polarity subchron (subchron C3n.4n) and has been confirmed to about 3.3 Ma using high-precision At/At dating [Renne et al., 1993]. The astronochronologic estimates for the Brunhes/Matuyama (0.78 Ma) and Matuyama/Gauss (2.60 Ma) boundaries were already used for calibration in CK92; thus the good agreement of CK92 with the astronomical timescale to the older end of chron C2A (Gauss/Gilbert boundary) is not unexpected. An appreciable discrepancy, however, emerges in the early Pliocene where the astronomical timescale gives ages for the constituent polarity intervals of chron C3n (C3n. ln, C3n.2n, C3n.3n, and C3n.4n, or Cochiti, Nunivak, Sidufjall, and Thvera subchrons, respectively) that are systematically 150 to 180 kyr older than the interpolated ages in CK92. Wilson [1993] showed that the astrochronology gives a more consistent seafloor spreading history when applied to his revised spacings of anomalies on several Pacific spreading ridges. This points to the magnetic anomaly spacings for this interval used for interpolation by Cande and Kent [1992] as the likely source of the discrepancy and suggests that the available astronochronology provides reliable ages for polarity chrons through the Pliocene (see also Renne et al., 1994).Copyfight 1995 by tho Amorican Ooophysical Union.

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We present a revised Cenozoic geochronology based upon a bestfit to selected high-temperature radiometric dates on a number of identified magnetic polarity chrons (within the Late Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene) which minimizes apparent accelerations in seafloor spreading. An assessment of >200 first-order correlations of calcareous plankton biostratigraphic datum events to magnetic polarity stratigraphy yields an improved correlation of the standard magnetostratigraphic, standard biostratigraphic (zonal) and chronostratigraphic boundaries, as well as improved resolution in marinecontinental stratigraphic correlations. The time scale presented here has been accepted by the Committee on Geochronology as the standard time scale for the Cenozoic for the Decade of North American Geology (DNAG).

We have constructed a magnetic polarity time scale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic based on an analysis of marine magnetic profiles from the world's ocean basins. This is the first time, since Heirtzler et al. (1968) published their time scale, that the relative widths of the magnetic polarity intervals for the entire Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic have been systematically determined from magnetic profiles. A composite geomagnetic polarity sequence was derived based primarily on data from the South Atlantic. Anomaly spacings in the South Atlantic were constrained by a combination of finite rotation poles and averages of stacked profiles. Fine‐scale information was derived from magnetic profiles on faster spreading ridges in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and inserted into the South Atlantic sequence. Based on the assumption that spreading rates in the South Atlantic were smoothly varying but not necessarily constant, a time scale was generated by using a spline function to fit a set of nine age calibration points plus the zero‐age ridge axis to the composite polarity sequence. The derived spreading history of the South Atlantic shows a regular variation in spreading rate, decreasing in the Late Cretaceous from a high of almost 70 mm/yr (full rate) at around anomaly 33–34 time to a low of about 30 mm/yr by anomaly 27 time in the early Paleocene, increasing to about 55 mm/yr by about anomaly 15 time in the late Eocene, and then gradually decreasing over the Oligocene and the Neogene to the recent rate of about 32 mm/yr. The new time scale has several significant differences from previous time scales. For example, chron C5n is ∼0.5 m.y. older and chrons C9 through C24 are 2–3 m.y. younger than in the chronologies of Berggren et al. (1985b) and Harland et al. (1990). Additional small‐scale anomalies (tiny wiggles) that represent either very short polarity intervals or intensity fluctuations of the dipole field have been identified from several intervals in the Cenozoic including a large number of tiny wiggles between anomalies 24 and 27. Spreading rates on several other ridges, including the Southeast Indian Ridge, the East Pacific Rise, the Pacific‐Antarctic Ridge, the Chile Ridge, the North Pacific, and the Central Atlantic, were analyzed in order to evaluate the accuracy of the new time scale. Globally synchronous variations in spreading rate that were previously observed around anomalies 20, 6C, and in the late Neogene have been eliminated. The new time scale helps to resolve events at the times of major plate reorganizations. For example, anomaly 3A (5.6 Ma) is now seen to be a time of sudden spreading rate changes in the Southeast Indian, Pacific‐Antarctic, and Chile ridges and may correspond to the time of the change in Pacific absolute plate motion proposed by others. Spreading rates in the North Pacific became increasingly irregular in the Oligocene, culminating in a precipitous drop at anomaly 6C time.