Annual Report 2012 of the Ypresian/Lutetian

On February 13, 2012 the official ceremony to define the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Lutetian Stage took place in Getxo village and Gorrondatxe beach (Northern Spain). The ceremony started at Getxo village with a press release by Imanol Landa (Major of Getxo), Xabier Orue-Etxebarria (Professor of the Basque Country University) and Eustoquio Molina (Chairman of the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy). The ceremony continues on top of the Gorrondatxe sea-cliff, where an informative poster was unveiled by Stan Finney (Chairman of the International Commission on Stratigraphy). Finally, on the cliff section near the beach, precisely on the dark marly level coinciding with the lowest occurrence of the calcareous nannofossil Blackites inflatus (CP12a/b boundary), the golden spike was stuck by Alberto Riccardi (President of the International Union of Geological Sciences). In the same place an informative plate on a concrete monolith was unveiled by Riccardi and Finney. Many members of the Y/L Working Group, ISPS, ICS and IUGS attended the ceremony and the following day several regional newspapers, radios and televisions informed about the success of the ceremony.
Since the GSSP was officially published in Episodes another paper has been published:
Payros A., Ortiz S., Alegret L., Orue-Etxebarria, X., Apellaniz E. & Molina E. (2012). An early Lutetian carbon-cycle perturbation: Insights from the Gorrondatxe section (western Pyrenees, Bay of Biscay). Paleoceanography. 27(2), PA2213, DOI: 10.1029/2012PA002300.

Report by Eustoquio Molina, Chairman.