K/Pg Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), El Kef, Tunisia.

Other K/Pg sections in Tunisia

Kef (Blind Sampling Project here)

El Kef, near hamlet of el Haria
The K/Pg GSSP is near the left foot of the person (1.95m)

GSSP of the K/Pg boundary at el Kef. "The golden spike" is at the arrow, just below the red lamina at the base of the dark boundary clay. Details are at the right

Details of the GSSP at El Kef. Slabs mounted in epoxy resin. Scale on the right in cm. From bottom to top: A) uppermost Maastrichtian. Frequent burrows are visible as dark stains, filled with dark clay from the Danian. B) Leached topmost Maastrichtian, containing only casts of Maastrichtian foraminifers. C) Reddish ejecta layer, rich in iridium, altered microkrystites (sanidine, smectite and goethite) and Ni-rich spinels. GSSP is at the bottom of the layer. D) Basal part of the dark boundary clay layer. Graded (see here). Still rich in Cretaceous foraminifers and contains occasional sanidine and goethite spherules (microkrystites). E) Basically carbonate free and foraminifer free clay, except some arenaceous benthic foraminifers (2 cm) F) interval relatively (<100%) rich in very small, irregular guembelitriids, besides benthic foraminifers. G) irregular layers of sub-recent gypsum or anhydrite crystals. One of the problems of all the Tunisian K/Pg sections is their ubiquitous presence at exactly the iridium rich red layer, where they replace partially the ejecta layer, and clay above and below

Google map image of the K/Pg area.

El Kef data
INAA
microprobe
CaCO3
stable isotopes(∂13C, ∂18O)
images