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Science 18 December 1981:
Vol. 214. no. 4527, pp. 1341 - 1343
DOI: 10.1126/science.214.4527.1341
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Articles

An Iridium Abundance Anomaly at the Palynological Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in Northern New Mexico

CHARLES J. ORTH 1, JAMES S. GILMORE 1, JERE D. KNIGHT 1, CHARLES L. PILLMORE 2, ROBERT H. TSCHUDY 2, and JAMES E. FASSETT 3

1 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
2 U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225
3 U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87125

An iridium abundance anomaly, with concentrations up to 5000 parts per trillion over a background level of 4 to 20 parts per trillion, has been located in sedimentary rocks laid down under freshwater swamp conditions in the Raton Basin of northeastern New Mexico. The anomaly occurs at the base of a coal bed, at the same stratigraphic position at which several well-known species of Cretaceous-age pollen became extinct.

Submitted on August 31, 1981


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