8/13/2019 16 Bengtson 1977 - Lethaia

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LETHAIA PROJECT PRESENTATIONSLETH AI A 10 1977) 58

Mid-Cretaceous Events MCE) is one of the 35 keyprojects of the International Geological CorrelationProgramme IGCP) of IUGS/Unesco. This projectaims at establishing a workable global biostratigraphiczonation for the middle part of the Cretaceous, in-formally agreed as comprising the Albian to Coniacianstages. Based upon this stratigraphic framework, thegeological, geophysical, biological, and climatic eventsof the mid-Cretaceous are studied and correlated intime and space.

MCE is directed from Uppsala, Sweden, by R. A.Reyment Project Leader) and P. Bengtson ProjectSecretary). A French secretariat is run by P. YBerthou, Paris, and a North American secretariat byD. E. Hattin, Bloomington, Indiana. The project news-letter, MCE News . was presented in ethaia 9 4),p. 376.

After a constituent meeting in Paris, in November1974, the first meeting of the official Project WorkingGroup comprising 21 persons from 14 countries) washeld in Uppsala, in September 1975. On this occasion,the project leader and secretaries were elected. Anumber of previously submitted regional reports werediscussed, and guidelines were drawn for the publica-tion of these and future regional reports, eventuallyintended to cover all the mid-Cretaceous areas of theworld. The Project Working Group decided to initiatethe following special projects: 1) Turonian Palaeo-geographical Map, 2) Integration of Global Macro-fossil Zonation, 3) Integration of Global MicrofossilZonation, and 4) Deep-sea Mid-Cretaceous.

The third international MCE meeting was held inAugust 1976 in Hokkaido, Japan, as a specialists fieldmeeting for the study of the Upper Turonian. Theeighteen papers presented will be published in 1977 inthe Paleonrol. SOC. Jap . Spec Pap. In September 1976,the fourth international meeting was held, this timein Nice, France. This was also the Second Meeting ofthe Project Working Group. The Nice meeting, at-tended by 5 2 participants, consisted of: 1) a micro-palaeontological section, 2 ) a deep-sea section, 3) for-mation of working groups for the study of events, and4) field studies in the mid-Cretaceous of the Alpes-Maritimes.

After two years of existence, MCE has now over200 participants, representing nearly 40 countries. Asa result of the initial inventory of the mid-Cretaceousof the world, 35 regional reports are in the press forthe An n . Mus . Hi s t . Na t . Ni c e 17 reports are in anadvanced stage of preparation, and another 10 reportshave been promised. The integration of global macro-and microfossil zonations and the work on the Turo-nian map re expected to be completed by 1977.

With the large number of specialists in differentfields of geology participating in MCE, it is now pos-sible to put more emphasis into the principal aims ofthe project, i.e. the study of th e events of the middleCretaceous. These include: major transgressions andregressions, changes in continental configurations andpositions e.g. the opening of t he South Atlanti c andthe Mozambique Channel and the separation of Indiafro m Gondwanaland), sedimentational events e.g.evaporite and chalk formation and oceanic anoxicevents), climatic events, biological events e.g. evolu-tion of angiosperms, teleosts, and gastropods and thedisjunct distribution of heteromorphic ammonites), geo-magnetic reversals, sea-floor spreading events, oro-genies, and epeirogenies. At the Nice meeting, 20working groups on selected, especially important eventswere constituted.

The following regional groups and subgroups areworking within MCE, or are in the process of forma-tion: the British, Central European, French, Romanian,Scandinavian, and West German regional groups andthe North American Micropaleontologic Subgroup. Inaddition to the special projects initiated in 1975, thereare a number of more loosely constituted workinggroups or special projects, such as: the history of thegeosynclines, migration of sedimentary basins, bioticprovincialism, relations of magnetostratigraphy to bio-stratigraphy, and dating of the South Atlantic salts.Some of these projects are acting within the newlyformed working groups on the study of events.

MCE is collaborating with the Interunion Com-mission on Geodynamics and the recently reconstitutedIUGS Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy.For 1977 two project meetings are being planned:the Third Meeting of the Project Working Group, tobe held in conjunction with the Second North Ameri-can Paleontological Convention, Lawrence, Kansas, inAugust, and a field meeting in the Iberian Peninsula,in September. The Lawrence meeting will he the lastgeneral meeting of MCE, after which specialists meet-ings and meetings of the various working groups,regional groups and subgroups will be held throughoutthe duration of the project. MCE is expected to havereached its main objectives by 1981, and the projectwill then be re-evaluated.

Further information on Mid-Cretaceous Events, in-cluding the newsletter MCE News is available fromthe Project Leader or Project Secretariat at: Paleonto-logiska institutionen, Box 558, S-751 22 Uppsala, Swe-den.