Abstract
Based on the study of magnetic lineations in normal to active spreading centers of the world's ocean basins, a time scale of geomagnetic reversals was proposed by Heirtzler and others (1968) for the Cenozoic and late Cretaceous using the polarity time scale then known for the last 3.5Ma. Since the accuracy of such a polarity time scale can be refined by improved methods of measuring the distance of magnetic anomalies from axis of the ocean ridges, the geomagne tic reversal time scale has served for the past three decades as the most important correlation standard for biostratigraphic events occurring in various microfossil groups. A review is herein presented with regard to the methodology leading to the establishment of the most refined version of geomagnetic reversal time scale by Cande and Kent (1995), currently referred to as CK 95, and a correlation chart of datum events of diatom, radiolarians, calcareous nannoplankton and planktonic foraminifera, useful for dating Japanese Neogene sediments, is constructed relative to this new CK 95 time scale.
