A visit to the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary

tl_files/sites/ees/Images/recent/FortuneHeadBoundary.jpgSandra Barr recently had an opportunity to visit the internationally recognized "global stratotype" (type section) for the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary at Fortune Head, Newfoundland. In the photograph her left hand is on the boundary (age 542 million years). This site was selected because sediment deposition was continuous across the boundary at this location. Evidence of abundant life on the sea floor in the form of trace fossils begins about 2 metres (a few million years) above this boundary in the Early Cambrian. The field trip was organized by the Newfoundland Section of the Geological Association of Canada.

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