Prairie Bluff Formation

Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation
Stratigraphic range: Upper Cretaceous

Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation (Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous) in Starkville, Mississippi.
Type Geological formation
Unit of Selma Group
Overlies Ripley Formation
Lithology
Primary Chalk
Location
Region Alabama
Country  United States
Type section
Named for Prairie Bluff, Alabama

The Prairie Bluff Chalk Formation is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. state of Alabama. The chalk was formed by marine sediments deposited along the eastern edge of the Mississippi embayment during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. It is a unit of the Selma Group and marks the end of the Cretaceous in Alabama. Evidence has been found within the formation at Braggs, Moscow, and Millers Ferry in Alabama indicating an instantaneous to brief erosional event, most likely a tsunami, at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary). It is hypothesized that this event, along with faulting and liquification of the Prairie Bluff Chalk, is related to the meteorite impact at the Chicxulub crater site, directly south, across the Gulf of Mexico, from the formation.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ryder, Graham (1996). The Cretaceous-Tertiary Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. pp. 271–273. ISBN 0-8137-2307-8.

External links

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