Standard Auxiliary Boundary Stratotype (SABS) approved to support the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP)

The Standard Auxiliary Boundary Stratotype (SABS) has been approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) as a formal replacement for the Auxiliary Stratotype Point to support a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP). The SABS provides a detailed complementary expression of the boundary interval without designating a specific point. More than one SABS may support a single GSSP and each will be subordinate to the GSSP. SABSs extend the correlative potential of a GSSP between continents, biogeographic provinces, climatic zones, depositional facies and preservational states. Requirements for SABSs broadly follow ICS guidelines for GSSPs, and will require approval by their respective ICS subcommission. Following such approval, each SABS will be listed on the ICS website as well as that of the respective subcommission, and future SABSs will be accompanied by an announcement published in the International Union of Geological Sciences journal Episodes.