During the Late Cretaceous (94-64 Ma) sea level was up to 650 m higher than at the start of the Albian, when it was perhaps about the same as it is today. Facies analysis in both the Western Interior of the USA and in NW Europe reveals simultaneous major oscillations in sea level that controlled the principal transgressions and regressions except in regions of rapid contemporaneous tectonics. The peak transgressions of the Late Albian, Early Turonian, Early Coniacian, Middle Santonian and Late Campanian, probably recognisable world-wide, involved rises of sea level at rates of about 10-90 m per m.y. The peak regressions are more difficult to measure, but were usually faster and involved falls of sea level of about 95-170 m per m.y.The Late Cretaceous witnessed the greatest inundation of the continents by the sea since the Ordovician. It is impossible to estimate exactly how much land was invaded or how much land was left. Matsumoto (1977) attempted a reconstruction, and excluding Antarctica, his maps indicate that 23% of the continents were affected by Late Cretaceous transgressions (Fig.

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There is good evidence that high sea-levels peaked simultaneously during the Late Albian to Turonian in the USA and northwest Europe. Therefore, it is to be expected that the principal peaks during the Campanian-Maastrichtian, now well dated in northwest Europe, should be detectable in the USA. Of the four main peaks in Europe, no. 3, low in the Zone of Belemnitella langei , is the most prominent, and can be recognized with confidence in the Western Interior, New Jersey, Alabama-Mississippi and probably in Texas. The other peaks can be identified with various degrees of confidence, but the sea did not persist long enough in the Western Interior for the last peak, early in the Late Maastrichtian, to be developed there. The results change the generally assumed position of the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundary on the foraminiferal scale: the base of the Maastrichtian on the belemnite scale is a considerable distance above the top of the Zone of Globotruncanita calcarata , possibly as high as the base of the Zone of Gansserina gansseri in north temperate regions. On the ammonite scale in the western interior of the USA the boundary is probably at the base of the Zone of Baculites baculus at 70.7 Ma, but could be at the base of the Zone of B. eliasi .