Journal articles

The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

Schulte Peter ^{1, *} Laia Alegret ² Ignacio Arenillas ² José A. Arz ² Penny J. Barton ³ Paul R. Bown ⁴ Timothy J. Bralower ⁵ Gail L. Christeson ⁶ Philippe Claeys ⁷ Charles S. Cockell ^{8, 9} Gareth S. Collins ¹⁰ Alexander Deutsch ¹¹ Tamara J. Goldin ¹² Kazuhisa Goto ¹³ José M. Grajales-Nishimura ¹⁴ Richard A. F. Grieve ¹⁵ Sean P. S. Gulick ¹⁶ Kirk R. Johnson ¹⁷ Wolfgang Kiessling ¹⁸ Christian Koeberl ¹⁹ David A. Kring ²⁰ Kenneth G. Macleod ²¹ Takafumi Matsui ²² Jay Melosh ²³ Alessandro Montanari ²⁴ Joanna V. Morgan ¹⁰ Clive R. Neal ²⁵ Douglas J. Nichols ¹⁷ Richard D. Norris ²⁶ Elisabetta Pierazzo ²⁷ Greg Ravizza ²⁸ Mario Rebolledo-Vieyra ²⁹ Wolf Uwe Reimold ¹⁸ Eric Robin ³⁰ Tobias Salge ³¹ Robert P. Speijer ³² Arthur R. Sweet ³³ Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi ³⁴ Vivi Vajda ³⁵ Michael T. Whalen ³⁶ Pi S. Willumsen ³⁵

* Corresponding author

1 FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

2 University of Zaragoza - Universidad de Zaragoza [Zaragoza]

3 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]

4 Department of Earth Sciences [UCL london]

5 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University

6 JSG - Jackson School of Geosciences

7 ESSc - Earth System Science Group [Brussels]

8 PSSRI - Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute [Milton Keynes]

9 CEPSAR - Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research [Milton Keynes]

10 Imperial College London

11 Institut für Planetologie [Münster]

12 University of Vienna [Vienna]

13 School of Engineering [Tohoku Univ]

14 IMP - Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo

15 Earth Sciences Sector

16 University of Texas at Austin [Austin]

17 Denver Museum of Nature and Science

18 Museum für Naturkunde [Berlin]

19 Department of Lithospheric Research [Wien]

20 Center for Lunar Science and Exploration [Houston]

21 Department of Geological Sciences [Columbia]

22 Dept of Complex Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Science

23 Purdue University [West Lafayette]

24 OGC - Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco

25 CEEES - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Science [Notre Dame]

26 SIO - Scripps Institution of Oceanography

27 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]

28 Department of Geology and Geophysics [Mānoa]

29 CICY - Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan

30 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]

31 Bruker Nano GmbH

32 EES - Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences [Leuven]

33 NRCan - Natural Resources Canada

34 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico

35 Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences [Lund]

36 UAF - University of Alaska [Fairbanks]

Abstract : The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary ~65.5 million years ago marks one of the three largest mass extinctions in the past 500 million years. The extinction event coincided with a large asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, and occurred within the time of Deccan flood basalt volcanism in India. Here, we synthesize records of the global stratigraphy across this boundary to assess the proposed causes of the mass extinction. Notably, a single ejecta-rich deposit compositionally linked to the Chicxulub impact is globally distributed at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The temporal match between the ejecta layer and the onset of the extinctions and the agreement of ecological patterns in the fossil record with modeled environmental perturbations (for example, darkness and cooling) lead us to conclude that the Chicxulub impact triggered the mass extinction

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Earth Sciences / Paleontology

Complete list of metadata

https://hal-cea.archives-ouvertes.fr/cea-00818136
Contributor : Bruno Savelli Connect in order to contact the contributor
Submitted on : Friday, April 26, 2013 - 10:10:12 AM
Last modification on : Monday, August 8, 2022 - 5:38:05 PM