Golden spike

Reference point worldwide

The geological site “Romanterra” is a very recent discovery and of worldwide importance.
In the modern international geological scale every limit between the subdivisions of the different periods must be defined with a single reference point worldwide.
This point is called the Global Stratighraphic Section and Point; briefly “golden spike” which symbolically indicates the exact position of the limit. In 2005 the Romanterra site was chosen as a reference point for the limit between the Anisian (24.5 million years ago) and Ladinian (240.5 million years ago) strata for its fossils, for the relevance of the outcrop and for the precision of the dating of the layers.
Romanterra’s marine fossils include remains of ammonoids and bivalve shells that are useful to establish the age of the strata.

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