Joeri Witteveen on Golden Spikes

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The geological timescale is organized as a hierarchy of time spans. When we talk about the ages of rocks, or when certain events in the geological past took place, we need to use a system that unambiguously defines a time in geological history. This is by no means a trivial problem. In the podcast, Joeri Witteveen describes the various approaches that have been adopted in the past, and explains the system based on golden spikes that we use today.

Witteveen is Associate Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Copenhagen.

The December 2024 version of the international chronostratigraphic chart. The right-hand part of each column lists the stages/ages. Each stages is a specific, formally defined interval of rock strata that represents a corresponding interval of time called an age. Golden spikes are marked at the base of the stages they define.

Golden Spike at the Base of the Selandian Stage, Zumaia, Spain

Photos courtesy of Stanley Finney

(A), (B) Participants of the 2006 conference at which the golden spike for the base of Selandian Stage in the Paleocene was dedicated in Spain. (C) Unveiling of an interpretive panel. (D) Golden spike created for the dedication ceremony. (E) Officials placing the golden spike. (F) Representatives of the local government, local scientists, and members of the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

Marker plaque for the golden spike at the base of the Selandian Stage.

Students taking part in a boat trip with a spectacular view of the Zumaia section Geopark.

Golden spike at the base of the Selandian Stage, Zumaia, Spain.

Relocation of the golden spike at the base of the Wuchiapingian Stage necessitated by flooding of the Hongshui River caused by construction of a dam 80 km downstream on the Pearl River. The original golden spike is now about 5 m below the surface. The new location was placed at a slightly different stratigraphic level with the potential for greater correlation of the boundary around the globe. As Witteveen points out in the podcast, a strictly local event resulted in the global redefinition of the base of the Wuchiapingian Stage.

Shu-zhong Shen, et al. (2023), Episodes 47, 147

Locations of golden spikes as of early 2020. The circles are color-coded according to the colors of their corresponding stages on the chronostratigraphic chart.

Gradstein, F. M., et al. (2020), The Chronostratigraphic Scale, Elsevier

Monument at the golden spike at Meishan, China, marking the boundary between the Permian and the Triassic.

Geological museum at Meishan includes a hall on the golden spike and an enlarged model of a conodont species, which makes its first appearance above this golden spike and is key to the definition of the base of the Triassic.

Further Reading

Witteveen, J. (2024), Golden spikes, scientific types, and the ma(r)king of deep time, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 106, 70

Gradstein, F. M. and Ogg, J. G. (2020), The Geologic Time Scale, Elsevier BV

Finney, S. C. and Hilario, A. (2018), Geoheritage, Chapter 10 GSSPs As International Geostandards and as Global Geoheritage, Elsevier BV