Sedimentary patterns across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains of the United States

Abstract

Fossiliferous clay and sand belonging to calcareous nannofossil Zones NP 9 (latest Paleocene) and NP 10 (earliest Eocene) are widespread in the US Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains. Although the thickness of Zone NP 9-NP 10 strata is several times greater in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain than in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the hiatus that usually is present between these two zones in inner neritic strata is of longer duration in the Gulf Coast. Although 6 sequences are found in Zones NP 10-NP 11 in both the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, the number of sequences in each NP zone differs in the 2 areas. There is continuous deposition across the Zone NP 9-NP 10 boundary only in the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain, where middle to outer neritic deposits record the presence of several latest Paleocene (upper Zone NP 9) events that occurred at approximately 55.2 Ma.