Magnetostratigraphy of the Terrestrial Cretaceous in China: Recent Developments

The Cretaceous is a special period with great environmental, biological, and geodynamical changes in the evolutionary history of Earth. Widespread Cretaceous terrestrial sediments in China provide ideal materials for the study of the “Cretaceous World”. Magnetostratigraphy, a geophysical method used to date and correlate strata based on their magnetic properties, has made pivotal contributions to the chronological study of the Cretaceous in China. Here, we review the history and advancements in Cretaceous magnetostratigraphy research in China over the past decades, focusing on its representative achievements in areas such as the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB), Jehol biota and dinosaur evolution, the age of Cretaceous Normal Superchron (CNS), and key stratigraphic correlations. Additionally, we summarize challenges encountered in magnetostratigraphic studies of China’s terrestrial sediments, including remagnetization, remanent magnetization in conglomerates, and high-resolution stratigraphic correlation. We suggest that future research on China's Cretaceous should prioritize terrestrial sequences and integrate magnetostratigraphy with biostratigraphy, isotopic dating, and cyclostratigraphy to establish a high-resolution chronological framework and achieve precise marine-continental stratigraphic correlations, which could provide a solid chronological foundation for the study of Cretaceous geological events and resource exploration.