Magnetostratigraphic correlation of Paleogene sequences from northwest Europe and North America

Using all available biostratigraphic information and our own extensive magnetostratigraphic database, we have attempted to assess the synchronicity of depositional cycles recorded in the Paleogene epicontinental deposits on both sides of the North Atlantic as stage two of a four-stage global assessment of the eustatic sea-level model. Our conclusion is that the depositional histories of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico-Atlantic coastal plain and the North Sea basin show many similarities, on a variety of time scales, over the interval 60-46 Ma. Considering the tectonic imprint of the northeast Atlantic opening on the North Sea basin sea-level record far part of this time, it must give some weight to the claim that eustasy is the dominant mechanism controlling deposition on passive continental margins.