A bed of volcanic ash up to 23 cm thick is found in lacustrine and marine sediments in western Norway. It is formally mamed the Vedde Ash Bed, and its age is approximately 10,600 yr B.P., i.e., mid-Younger Dryas. The bed consits of pure glass having a bimodal basaltic and rhyolitic composition. The geochemistry of the glass shards suggests an Icelandic source. By means of stratigraphic position and geochemistry, the ash is correlated with ash zones found in cores from the continental shelf, the Norwegian Sea, and the North Atlatic.

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We present a detailed Cenozoic biostratigraphy for Paleogene bathyal and Neogene neritic strata, north of 55? in the central North Sea, and offshore mid-Norway, using both foraminifera and dinoflagellate cysts. Construction of the zonations was assisted by the quantitative stratigraphic methods RASC and STRATCOR. Eight Paleogene and four Neogene interval zones of benthic and some planktonic foraminifera are defined. These zones involve the average last occurrence of 64 taxa present in a minimum of 7 of 33 wells studied. Eighteen geographically rare, but stratigraphically important foraminifers and dinoflagellate cysts were inserted as "unique events". Thirteen Paleogene dinoflagellate cyst interval and peak zones are defined that are interrelated with the foraminiferal zonation. The Paleocene-Eocene boundary is assigned at the top of dinoflagellate cyst zone T2c (Apectodinium augustum LO), immediately above the upper limit of the Reticulophragmium paupera Zone. The Coscinodiscus Zone and dinoflagellate cyst zone T3A (acme of Deflandea oebisfeldensis) are earliest Eocene in age. Uppermost Eocene strata may be largely missing in the central North Sea, as is part or all of the Upper Miocene.