The biotic effects of large bolide impacts: size versus time and place

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Walkden ◽  
Julian Parker

AbstractIn estimating the biotic effects of large terrestrial impacts we are reliant upon apparent crater diameter as a proxy for impact magnitude. This underlies the ‘kill-curve’ approach which graphs crater diameter directly against likely percentage losses of taxa. However, crater diameter is a complex product of syn- and post-impact processes that can be site-dependent. Furthermore, location (global positioning) and timing (moment in geological history) also strongly influence biotic effects. We examine four of our largest and best-documented Phanerozoic impacts to explore this more holistic size–time–place relationship. Only the c. 180 km end-Cretaceous Chicxulub crater (Mexico) links to any substantial immediate extinction and some of the worst effects stem from where it struck the planet (a continental margin carbonate platform site) and when (a time of high regional and global biodiversity). Both the c. 100 km late Triassic Manicouagan crater in NE Canada (arid continental interior, low regional and world biodiversity) and the c. 35 Ma 100 km Popigai crater, Siberia (continental arctic desert) provide much less damaging scenarios. However the c. 90 km Chesapeake Bay crater, Eastern USA (also c. 35 Ma) marks a far more sensitive (Chicxulub-like) site but it also proved relatively benign. Here the rheologically varied shallow marine target site produced an anomalously broad crater, and the scale of the impact has evidently been overestimated. We offer a new approach to the graphical prediction of biotic risk in which both crater diameter and a generalised time/place factor we term ‘vulnerability’ are variables.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi ◽  
Ligia Perez-Cruz ◽  
Elia Escobar-Sanchez ◽  
Miriam Velasco-Villarreal ◽  
Edgar Garcia-Garnica

<p>Chicxulub crater was formed ~66 Ma ago by an asteroid impact at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary on the Yucatan carbonate platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The crater is the youngest and best preserved of the three large impact basins, with a ~200 km diameter and multi-ring and peak ring morphology. The crater, covered by post-impact carbonate sediments with thickness up to ~1.1 km, has been investigated by geophysical studies and drilling programs. Initial drilling in Yucatan was carried out by the Pemex oil company, followed by the National University UNAM Chicxulub program, the ICDP Yaxcopoil-1 project and the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 marine drilling. Here, results of combined paleomagnetic, rock magnetic, petrographic and geochemical studies are used to characterize the sequence and constrain the unit’s emplacement and crater formation. We analyze core samples of suevitic breccias and Paleogene carbonates from the Yaxcopoil-1 and Santa Elena boreholes drilled in the southern sector, inside and to the south of the crater rim marked by the ring of cenotes.  Magnetic hysteresis, low-field susceptibility and coercitivity analyses indicate that main carriers are titanomagnetites and magnetite. Mineralogical and magnetic properties indicate effects of hydrothermal alteration, associated with the high temperature system generated by the impact. Higher coercitivity minerals are also observed in some samples. In the carbonate sections, hydrothermal effects as marked by the geochemical logs decrease upwards from the breccia-carbonate contact. Alternating field and thermal demagnetization is used to investigate the magnetization vector composition and isolate the characteristic remanent components. Magnetic polarities defined from the inclination data show a sequence of reverse to normal, which correlate to polarity chrons 29r to 26r, with impact occurring within 29r chron.  The correlations of the magnetostratigraphy and stable isotopes indicate a hiatus at the basal Paleocene section. In Santa Elena cores, d<sup>13</sup>C values range from 1.2 to 3.5%<sub>0 </sub>and d<sup>18</sup>O values range from -1.4 to -4.8%<sub>0, </sub>with variation trends correlating with the marine carbon and oxygen isotope records for the late Maastrichtian and early Paleocene. The positive carbon isotopes indicate high productivity after the K/Pg extinction event, while the oxygen isotope values are more negative reflecting regional and local effects. Silica contents decrease from high in the suevites to low values in carbonates showing higher variability and then increased contents at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The geochemical trends correlate in other elements including iron, titanium, potassium and aluminum that record impact-induced hydrothermal effects and possibly changing depositional conditions. Ca shows an opposite trend, with lower values in the upper suevitic breccias, higher values in the Paleocene carbonates and lower values in the PETM.</p>


Paleobiology ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Raup

The kill curve for Phanerozoic marine species is used to investigate large-body impact as a cause of species extinction. Current estimates of Phanerozoic impact rates are combined with the kill curve to produce an impact-kill curve, which predicts extinction levels from crater diameter, on the working assumption that impacts are responsible for all “pulsed” extinctions. By definition, pulsed extinction includes the approximately 60% of Phanerozoic extinctions that occurred in short-lived events having extinction rates greater than 5%. The resulting impact-kill curve is credible, thus justifying more thorough testing of the impact-extinction hypothesis. Such testing is possible but requires an exhaustive analysis of radiometric dating of Phanerozoic impact events.


2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-157
Author(s):  
Yi Luo ◽  
Ke Yuan ◽  
Lumin Shen ◽  
Jiefu Liu

Abstract In this study, a series of in-plane hexagonal honeycombs with different Poisson's ratio induced by topological diversity are studied, considering re-entrant, semi-re-entrant and convex cells, respectively. The crushing strength of honeycomb in terms of Poisson's ratio is firstly presented. In the previous research, we have studied the compression performance of honeycomb with different negative Poisson's ratio. In this study, a comparative study on the local impact resistance of different sandwich panels is conducted by considering a spherical projectile with low to medium impact speed. Some critical criteria (i.e. local indentation profile, global deflection, impact force and energy absorption) are adopted to analyze the impact resistance. Finally, an influential mechanism of Poisson's ratio on the local impact resistance of sandwich panel is studied by considering the variation of core strength and post-impact collapse behavior.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Chatterjee ◽  
Alan Bowling

This work presents a new approach for resolving the unique invariant slip direction at Stick-Slip Transition during impact. The solution method presented in this work is applicable to both single-point and multi-point impact problems. The proposed method utilizes rigid body constraints to resolve the impact forces at all collision points in terms of a single independent impact forces parameter. This work also uses an energetic coefficient of restitution to terminate impact events, thereby yielding energetically consistent post-impact behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaye Kaya

This study aims to compare the low-velocity impact and post-impact properties of intra-ply hybrid carbon/E-glass/polypropylene non-crimp thermoplastic composites with non-hybrid carbon/PP and E-glass/PP non-crimp thermoplastic composites. Impact test was performed at four energy levels as 15 J, 30 J, 45 J and 60 J. Post-impact properties of hybrid thermoplastic composites were tested by compression after impact method for each energy level to understand the impact damage tolerance of intra-ply hybrid carbon/E-glass/PP non-crimp thermoplastic composites. The effect of hybridization on energy absorption of composites was not significant, while C-scan results showed that the intra-ply hybrid non-crimp thermoplastic composites had smaller impact damage areas in comparison to the non-hybrid samples. Compression and compression after impact tests results confirmed that the intra-ply hybridization increased the toughness of the composite laminates. Also, the residual compression strength/modulus increased with hybridization which indicated to damage tolerance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (20) ◽  
pp. 4434
Author(s):  
Ju Zhang ◽  
Pucun Bai ◽  
Changwang Yan ◽  
Shuguang Liu ◽  
Xiaoxiao Wang

Cement-based material is brittle and is easily damaged by an impact load with a few blows. The purpose of this paper is to study the relations between the impact resistance and tensile properties of cement-based materials reinforced by polyvinyl alcohol fiber (PVA-FRCM). A drop-weight test and uniaxial tension test were performed. The relations were studied based on the experimental results, including the relation between the blow number and the tensile stress at the first visible cracking (σc) and the relation between the blow number and the tensile strain at the ultimate failure (εf). Results showed that the blow number for the first visible crack for disc impact specimens increases obviously with the increase of σc of slab specimens. The crater diameter and blow number for ultimate failure of the disc specimens increase with the increase of εf of slab specimens. For the PVA-FRCM specimens with larger σc and εf, much more blows are needed to cause both the first visible crack and ultimate failure. Polyvinyl alcohol fibers can reinforce impact resistance and tensile properties of cement-based materials.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 155892501983252
Author(s):  
Cuiyu Li ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Jingyan Jia ◽  
Gaopan Wang ◽  
Yameng Shi

This study investigated the impact and post-impact behavior of different layer weft plain knitted composite materials based on modified ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene/epoxy composites. The modified ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene weft plain knitted composites with 8, 12, 16 layers were prepared by vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process and then subjected to impact and post-impact compression test. The impact properties were analyzed using the contact force–deflection and energy–time curves, and the post-impact compression was analyzed using the compression strength–strain curves. It can be obtained that the maximum contact force, absorbed energy, and residual compression strength after impact of the 16-layer specimen are 81.40%, 74.18%, and 73.25% more than those in the 8-layer specimen. respectively. According to the ultrasonic C-scan tests for the impact samples, the 16-layer specimen had the least damage area after the impact test, and the 8-layer composites damage area was 117.45% more than the 16-layer specimen.


2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANIEL DANELIAN ◽  
ALASTAIR H. F. ROBERTSON

This paper presents new radiolarian biostratigraphic and igneous/metamorphic geochemical data for a Mesozoic volcanic–sedimentary mélange on the island of Evia (Euboea or Evvoia), eastern Greece. This mélange includes dismembered thrust sheets and blocks of radiolarian chert and basalt. Biostratigraphic age data show that radiolarites interbedded with basalt-derived, coarse clastic sediments near the base of a coherent succession were deposited in Middle and Late Triassic time (Late Ladinian–Carnian, Norian?). Geochemical evidence shows that associated extrusive rocks, of inferred Triassic age, range from ‘enriched’ alkaline basalts, to ‘transitional’ basalts, and more ‘depleted’ mid-ocean ridge-type basalts. Amphibolite facies meta-basalts from the metamorphic sole of the over-riding Evia ophiolite exhibit similar chemical compositions. Both the basalts and the meta-basalts commonly show an apparent subduction-related influence (e.g. relative Nb depletion) that may have been inherited from a previous subduction event in the region. The basalts are interpreted to have erupted during Middle–Late Triassic time (Late Ladinian–Carnian), related to initial opening of a Neotethyan ocean basin adjacent to a rifted continental margin. Radiolarites located stratigraphically higher in the coherent succession studied are dated as Middle Jurassic (Late Bathonian–Early Callovian). Similar-aged radiolarites are depositionally associated with ophiolitic rocks (including boninites), in some other areas of Greece and Albania. During initial ocean basin closure (Bajocian–Bathonian) the adjacent shallow-water carbonate platform (Pelagonian zone) disintegrated to form basins in which siliceous sediments were deposited and highs on which shallow-water carbonates continued to accumulate. This facies differentiation is seen as a response to crustal flexure as the Neotethyan ocean began to close. The over-riding Pagondas Mélange and other similar units in the region are interpreted as accretionary prisms related to subduction of Neotethyan oceanic crust in Middle–Late Jurassic time. These mélanges were emplaced, probably diachronously during Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian time, when the passive margin collapsed, creating a foredeep ahead of advancing thrust sheets of mélange and ophiolites.


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