Globally, the end of the Cretaceous saw one of the greatest continental magmatism on earth--the Deccan flood basalts, tremendous outpourings within a span of some five million years. The KT boundary is an important marker in geological history. There may have been large asteroid impact(s) during the Late Cretaceous. The dinosaurs disappeared with the end of the Cretaceous. Cretaceous is also very important In the context of Himalayan geology, A series of island arcs (Chagai, Kohistan, Ladakh, southern Tibet) developed in the Neotethys during the Cretaceous. The Kohistan (and Ladakh) arc became an Andean type margin in the Late Cretaceous (90-100 Ma) after collision with the Karakoram plate. I think earliest contact between NW India and Kohistan arc may have taken place at Creto-Paleocene boundary. Many of our ophiolites were emplaced in Paleocene.

You can see some more information in our book (Geology and tectonics of Pakistan, Kazmi and Jan, 1997; especially under the section on Deccan volcanism).

The Cretaceous is important as this is the time when Angiosperms started their radiation, quickly covering almost all continents, and deeply modifying alteration, erosion, stream velocity, coast dynamics (mangroves), etc. something which as no equivalent except for the Devonian when terrestrial vegetations first appeared.

regards

you can also read the paper Sosson et al., 2016 (with references herein) devoted to the Cretaceous period in the tectonic evolution of the future Alpine belt (that is the paer of the Thetys tectonic evolution).

all the best

Ijaz:

Each Period of Phanerozoic is important but certain salient features of Cretaceous Period could be mentioned here, which are unique:

1. Spectacular development of Chalk in Shelf of North Atlantic and Central Graben Basins, which are apparently absent in several part of the world including the entire Indo-Pacific region.

2. Massive amount of quality data collected from Deep Sea Drillings and outcrops created much interest in modeling Cretaceous Climate and Dynamics of Oceanic Regime, which is crucial for understanding future global warming induced Greenhouse world, when temperatures reached up to 10 deg, Celsius and sea level up to 200m higher than today during Cretaceous period.

3. Cretaceous period with possibility of ice free Poles holds key to the adaptation of fauna and flora (Extinction including Mass Extinction at Cretaceous / Palaeogene Boundary and Innovation) in response to the warming, humidity and changes in sea level.

4. Mid-Cretaceous is characterised by extreme warm climate producing widespread Oceanic Anoxic events and unique Normal-Polarity Super-Chron. During this time the Oceanic crust was produced at an exceptionally fast rate manifesting itself as massive Basalts of both Oceanic Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) such as Ontong Java and Kerguelen Plateaus and several subaerial LIPs, such as Deccan Flood Basalt of India. Possible links of  LIPs to Oceanic Anoxic Events and the evolution of atmosphere / biosphere / massive inundation of major continents by epicontinental sea world over, is a hot topic of discussion.

Best

Syed

Presently, ocean floor is no older than ~180 Ma.  Present-day continental margins for example,  All margins of Pacific Ocean recorded  subduction of earlier oceanic plates, accretion of arc terranes and emplacement of huge volume of magmas during this time. Laramide orogeny in western North America and orogenic belts in eastern China are just some examples.

Munazzam:

Kindly do have a look at this link for assessing the age of ocean floor:

http://www.earthobservatory.sg/faq-on-earth-sciences/why-seafloor-so-recent-and-continental-crust-so-old

Best

Syed

The question is not of the field of my specialty, but the importance of Cretaceous period in geological time-scale might be found from the link below, where the explanation as follows is given for this period:

Continents were on the move in the Cretaceous, busy remodeling the shape and tone of life on Earth. At the start of the period, dinosaurs ruled the loosening remnants of the supercontinent Pangaea as rodents scurried at their feet through forests of ferns, cycads, and conifers. At the end of the period, about 80 million years later, oceans filled yawning gaps between isolated continents shaped much as they are today. Flowering plants were spreading across the landscape. And mammals sat poised to fill the void that soon would be left by the vanished dinosaurs. A giant crater smoldered on what would become known as the Yucatán Peninsula.

Whether or not the asteroid or comet that carved the Chicxulub crater caused the extinction of more than half the planet's species at the end of the Cretaceous remains a matter of scientific debate. But the shifted continents, expanded coasts, and widened oceans had cooled and moistened the planet's climate and set in motion dramatic changes to the flora and fauna. An extraterrestrial impact or a bout of volcanism from within was perhaps too much for many of Earth's species to handle.

Long before the carnage began, the Cretaceous picked up where the Jurassic left off: Gigantic sauropods led parades of dinosaurs through the forests, over the plains, and along the coasts; long-necked and toothy marine reptiles terrorized fish, ammonites, and mollusks in the seas; pterosaurs and hairy-feathered birds filled the skies. But as the continents spread, the ocean currents churned with ever more vigor. After a temperature spike in the mid-Cretaceous, the climate began to cool, and the tenor changed.

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/cretaceous/

Syed,

Thanks, thats right, I should have said more than 99%. In fact, most of the ocean floor is not even older than 125 Ma

Please see the map for the age of ocean floor,

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/ocean_age/data/2008/ngdc-generated_images/whole_world/2008_age_of_oceans_plates.pdf

- Rise of angiosperms to widespread floristic dominance. Insects groups are important pollinators of basal angiosperms today, suggesting that their ecological association with angiosperms probably formed as early as in the Early Cretaceous.

- Potential insect pollinators during the Early Cretaceous would have included the flies that were already diverse by the Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous of further differentiation among several groups. Latest Albian – earliest Cenomanian pollination was mainly insects pollination rather than air-cross pollination, and Angiosperms had net-shaped to match insects pollination  (e.g. Afropolis, ..etc) This is emphasized by the fossil record of angiosperm flowers.

- Mid ocean Sea floor spreading and Atlantic ocean spread from narrow sea to Atlantic ocean, Africa had split from South America, the last land connection being between South America and south Africa, as a result of higher sea levels during late Albian-Middle Cenomanian & continue in Late Cretaceous, emphasized by fossil record of angiosperm flowers & diversifications of dinoflagellates.

- Massive extinction of dinosaurs & giant reptiles at the end of the Cretaceous .

Kindly do have a look at this link

Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte Jg. 1992 Heft 10 (1992), p. 595-613, published: Oct 1, 1992. htttp://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/njgpm/detail/1992/78573/Albian_Cenomanian_miospores_from_the_subsurface_of_the_north_Western_Desert_Egypt

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/41990718/palynology-volume-19-1995-aasp Palynology, 19, 233-253. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3687616

Abelardo:

What makes you feel that the question posed by a young Scientist Ijaz is foolish? Oil production is important but there are a host of other academic and applied aspects which need to be understood for this unique period.

Best

Syed 

Condescension and belittling the original poster have no place in a forum such as this. If you're not willing to cooperate and contribute in the spirit of this forum you might consider reining in your judgemental insults.

Dear Ray,

I have sent to this page a third of my publications on my specialities (petroleum stratigraphy of Mexico and amonoides); I have no interest neither time in discussing this case, that you consider as an insult.

Thank you not to send me more messages.

Ijaz,

While the responses of contributors have been summarized above, I wish to add that the Cretaceous marks the end of the Mesozoic  Era as well as the  Mesophytic of palaeopalynologists and palaeobotanists. Not only did the angisperms evolve and expand in the Cretaceous but also, they were followed by phytoplanctonic algal (dinoflagellates) abundance in the Cenozoic/phytic. The oldest  incontestable sediments overlying the basement rocks in Nigeria are continental pre- and syn-rift beds of Cretaceous age. The interior seaways connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Tethys Sea traversed the Sahara through the Benue Trough of Nigeria during the Middle and Late Cretaceous.

Cretaceous rocks have shown a lot of evidence for plate tectonics, extinction and evolution of flora and fauna. and general environmental change.

The journal, Cretaceous Research, carries much peer-reviewed articles related to this important Period of the Mesozoic/phytic Era.

Obianuju P. Umeji

There were a lot of great events in Cretaceous, for example opening of Arctic ocean, Mesozoic folding at the North East Asia. In addition most of porphyric deposits were formed in Crtaceous etc.