The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary at the Poty section, NE Brazil: foraminiferal record and sequence of events - a review

Abstract

The Poty Quarry, near Recife, Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil, is presently the best exposed marine Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary section known in southern low-latitude regions, spanning the uppermost Maastrichtian, Plummerita hantkeninoides Zone, to Danian, Pα, P1a/P1b and P2 zones. It provides evidence for a possible extraterrestrial bolide impact which occurred in the earliest Danian, corresponding to near or at the boundary between the Pα and P1a foraminiferal zones (c. 100,000 to 200,000 years after the K/Pg transition). The dating of the possible impact-triggered tsunami beds at Poty suggests a secondary K/Pg boundary event, perhaps part of multiple impacts during a few hundred thousand years around the transition.