GEOLOGIC TIME IN ZUMAIA

Four events that mark the passage of time

The Zumaia flysch perfectly illustrates how geologic time is recorded in rocks and divided into different periods marked by four important events. 

You can see and touch time here.

Paleocene / Eocene – 56 Ma

The great warming

Earth underwent one of the most severe periods of global warming in its history, also caused by the greenhouse effect.

Selandian / Thanetian – 59 Ma

Shift in the poles

Earth’s magnetic field reversed its polarity and this was recorded in the flysch’s magnetic minerals.

Danian / Selandian – 61 Ma

Sinking basin

A group of nannofossils called Fasciculithus spread across the globe. The seabed sank and the sea level fell by about 80 metres.

Cretaceous / Paleogene – 66 Ma

The extinction of the dinosaurs

Over 70% of species disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period. This mass extinction was recorded in a thin black layer barely 2 millimetres thick.