# Collecting a chunk of the K-P Boundary (neé the K-T boundary) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538 "2013-07-15T05:44:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/1 "2013-07-15T05:44:28Z")
Is there anyplace anyone knows of where a guy can haul off, legally (or not), an exposed chunk of the K-P boundary? The chunk doesn’t have to be very big. I don’t wanna buy it (if such a thing can be done), I’d rather get it myself. Continental U.S. or Canada preferred. Is there a convenient roadcut through it somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/2 "2013-07-15T06:08:01Z")
Ooh, good question! I’ve always wanted to see this for myself. Having a piece of it would be even cooler! Hope you get an answer somewhere near me! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/3 "2013-07-15T06:16:38Z")
Not only did you make me look it up, but now I have a throat gagger: Chicxulub. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/4 "2013-07-15T07:31:43Z")
> [@whc.03grady](#): > > Is there anyplace anyone knows of where a guy can haul off, legally (or not), an exposed chunk of the K-P boundary? The chunk doesn’t have to be very big. I don’t wanna buy it (if such a thing can be done), I’d rather get it myself. Continental U.S. or Canada preferred. Is there a convenient roadcut through it somewhere? The wikipedia site shows several visible examples. > **[Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_boundary)** > > The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary, formerly known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary,\[a\] is a geological signature, usually a thin band of rock containing much more iridium than other bands. The K–Pg boundary marks the end of the Cretaceous Period, the last period of the Mesozoic Era, and marks the beginning of the Paleogene Period, the first period of the Cenozoic Era. Its age is usually estimated at 66 million years, with radiometric dating yielding a more precise age of 66.043 Th... There’s an example in Colorado, another in Alberta… You can do your own research to find areas where old rocks are exposed. Cretaceous black shales are extensively distributed on various continental areas, such as the western interior of North America, the Alps, the Apennines of Italy, western South America, western Australia, western Africa, and southern Greenland. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/5 "2013-07-15T14:12:26Z")
It’s going to be hard to haul away “a chunk” of the actual boundary. Most places I’ve seen it, it’s just a smear of fishclay (marl) between other rock layers, and tends to be extremely friable. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/6 "2013-07-15T15:00:52Z")
I just so happen to have a pretty nice chunk of K-Pg coal in my rock collection which I got from near Fort Peck Dam in eastern Montana. I couldn’t tell you _exactly_ where it came from, but out there it’s pretty easy to find the thin coal bed that marks it. If you do find yourself in that part of the country (no idea why you would!) head over to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology mapping website here: [MBMG - Error 404 - Page Not Found](http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/gmr/gmr-statemap.asp) And pick out a map for the area you’re at. What you’re looking for is the boundary between the Hell Creek Formation (in green, labeled Kh) and the Fort Union Formation (tan, labeled Tft). Find a good exposure that’s on public land and collect away! Also the Bearpaw Shale (Kb) is a few formations down and has some awesome marine fossils like ammonites too, usually in concretions you have to crack open. You can also sometimes see identifiable dinosaur bones lying around in the Hell Creek and Fox Hills formations out there, but they’re illegal to collect and usually not in great shape anyways once they’ve been exposed. I’m sure if you ask at the (super cool) paleontology museum in Fort Peck they’ll tell you where you can do some legal collecting, especially if you only want a chunk of the K-Pg boundary. You can find the same exposure in Wyoming, the Dakotas and I presume up into Saskatchewan, but if you get maps from their geological surveys there will probably be different formation names. But what you’re looking for is the boundary between the last cretaceous formation (labeled K) and the first tertiary one (labeled T, and it probably will still be tertiary on most state maps). Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/7 "2013-07-15T15:20:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Is there anyplace anyone knows of where a guy can haul off Isn’t that a euphemism for something or other? ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/8 "2013-07-15T15:46:06Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s going to be hard to haul away “a chunk” of the actual boundary. Most places I’ve seen it, it’s just a smear of fishclay (marl) between other rock layers, and tends to be extremely friable. That’s okay, in fact I was thinking of a chunk with the ‘before’ and ‘after’ rock included anyway. Something about baseball-sized, maybe a little bigger. > [@GreasyJack](#): > > I just so happen to have a pretty nice chunk of K-Pg coal in my rock collection which I got from near Fort Peck Dam in eastern Montana. I couldn’t tell you _exactly_ where it came from, but out there it’s pretty easy to find the thin coal bed that marks it. > > If you do find yourself in that part of the country (no idea why you would!) head over to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology mapping website here: [MBMG - Error 404 - Page Not Found](http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/gmr/gmr-statemap.asp) > > And pick out a map for the area you’re at. Thanks, that’s great. It so happens that I live in Montana, Anaconda specifically, and both Hell Creek State Park and Fort Peck dam were already on my see-someday list. Now I’ve got another reason. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/9 "2013-07-15T16:15:17Z")
My God, they’ve deprecated the Tertiary? Nobody tells me anything! This will be sad news for one of my role-playing characters, the meteor-dropping Katie Boundary. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/10 "2013-07-15T16:19:23Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Not only did you make me look it up, but now I have a throat gagger: Chicxulub. In Mayan-derived words, “x” is pronounced “sh”. That should help. ---
**Author:** ![Dutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Dutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dutch)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/11 "2013-10-17T04:46:05Z")
This is exactly what I wanted to know! Thanks for the information! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collecting-a-chunk-of-the-k-p-boundary-nee-the-k-t-boundary/663538/12 "2013-10-17T05:51:13Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > In Mayan-derived words, “x” is pronounced “sh”. That should help. So it’s something like **chick schlub**? 😛 Some schlub chick killed the dinosaurs!