40Ar-39Ar ages of bentonite beds in the upper part of the Yazoo Formation (Upper Eocene), west-central Mississippi

Abstract

Bentonite beds recorded from both outcrops and cores in the upper Eocene Yazoo Formation offer opportunities to date the uppermost Eocene of this region and to provide information on the age of the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. This report gives radiometric age dates for three bentonites sampled from the upper Yazoo Formation. Two bentonites are from outcrops near Satartia in western Mississippi and one is from a core hole at Society Ridge in west-central Mississippi. The upper bentonite at Satartia was studied independently at two laboratories using different techniques but with the same results, an age of 34.3 Ma (million years). Results from the Society Ridge bentonite gave the same age. -from Authors