A new K-Ar age from uppermost Tremadoc rocks of North Wales

New conventional K–Ar dating of virtually unaltered pargasite phenocrysts extracted from a metabasalt of the uppermost Tremadocian Rhobell Volcanic Group, cropping out near Dolgellau, Gwynedd, north Wales, yields an age of 508 ± 11 Ma. This result provides a valuable new time-scale calibration point although incompatible with some other versions of the radiometric time-scale for the Lower Palaeozoic which have indicated ages of less than 508 ± 11 Ma for the Tremadoc/Arenig boundary.