Shock-deformed zircon from the Chicxulub impact crater and implications for cratering process

Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiawei Zhao ◽  
Long Xiao ◽  
Zhiyong Xiao ◽  
Joanna V. Morgan ◽  
Gordon R. Osinski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Thermal Evolution ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Large Impact ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Collapse Model ◽  
Chicxulub Impact Crater ◽  
International Ocean Discovery Program ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

Large impact structures with peak rings are common landforms across the solar system, and their formation has implications for both the interior structure and thermal evolution of planetary bodies. Numerical modeling and structural studies have been used to simulate and ground truth peak-ring formative mechanisms, but the shock metamorphic record of minerals within these structures remains to be ascertained. We investigated impact-related microstructures and high-pressure phases in zircon from melt-bearing breccias, impact melt rock, and granitoid basement from the Chicxulub peak ring (Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico), sampled by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)/International Continental Drilling Project (IODP-ICDP) Expedition 364 Hole M0077A. Zircon grains exhibit shock features such as reidite, zircon twins, and granular zircon including “former reidite in granular neoblastic” (FRIGN) zircon. These features record an initial high-pressure shock wave (>30 GPa), subsequent relaxation during the passage of the rarefaction wave, and a final heating and annealing stage. Our observed grain-scale deformation history agrees well with the stress fields predicted by the dynamic collapse model, as the central uplift collapsed downward-then-outward to form the peak ring. The occurrence of reidite in a large impact basin on Earth represents the first such discovery, preserved due to its separation from impact melt and rapid cooling by the resurging ocean. The coexistence of reidite and FRIGN zircon within the impact melt–bearing breccias indicates that cooling by seawater was heterogeneous. Our results provide valuable information on when different shock microstructures form and how they are modified according to their position in the impact structure, and this study further improves on the use of shock barometry as a diagnostic tool in understanding the cratering process.

scholarly journals Probing the hydrothermal system of the Chicxulub impact crater

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. eaaz3053 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Kring ◽  
Sonia M. Tikoo ◽  
Martin Schmieder ◽  
Ulrich Riller ◽  
Mario Rebolledo-Vieyra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydrothermal System ◽  
Earth’S Crust ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
Chicxulub Impact Crater ◽  
Earth's Crust ◽  
International Ocean Discovery Program ◽  
Geomagnetic Polarity ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Yellowstone Caldera

The ~180-km-diameter Chicxulub peak-ring crater and ~240-km multiring basin, produced by the impact that terminated the Cretaceous, is the largest remaining intact impact basin on Earth. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364 drilled to a depth of 1335 m below the sea floor into the peak ring, providing a unique opportunity to study the thermal and chemical modification of Earth’s crust caused by the impact. The recovered core shows the crater hosted a spatially extensive hydrothermal system that chemically and mineralogically modified ~1.4 × 105 km3 of Earth’s crust, a volume more than nine times that of the Yellowstone Caldera system. Initially, high temperatures of 300° to 400°C and an independent geomagnetic polarity clock indicate the hydrothermal system was long lived, in excess of 106 years.

scholarly journals Ocean resurge-induced impact melt dynamics on the peak-ring of the Chicxulub impact structure, Mexico

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix M. Schulte ◽  
◽  
Axel Wittmann ◽  
Stefan Jung ◽  
Joanna V. Morgan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Impact Structure ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Hydrothermal Conditions ◽  
Chemical Examination ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Target Rock ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

AbstractCore from Hole M0077 from IODP/ICDP Expedition 364 provides unprecedented evidence for the physical processes in effect during the interaction of impact melt with rock-debris-laden seawater, following a large meteorite impact into waters of the Yucatán shelf. Evidence for this interaction is based on petrographic, microstructural and chemical examination of the 46.37-m-thick impact melt rock sequence, which overlies shocked granitoid target rock of the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact structure. The melt rock sequence consists of two visually distinct phases, one is black and the other is green in colour. The black phase is aphanitic and trachyandesitic in composition and similar to melt rock from other sites within the impact structure. The green phase consists chiefly of clay minerals and sparitic calcite, which likely formed from a solidified water–rock debris mixture under hydrothermal conditions. We suggest that the layering and internal structure of the melt rock sequence resulted from a single process, i.e., violent contact of initially superheated silicate impact melt with the ocean resurge-induced water–rock mixture overriding the impact melt. Differences in density, temperature, viscosity, and velocity of this mixture and impact melt triggered Kelvin–Helmholtz and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities at their phase boundary. As a consequence, shearing at the boundary perturbed and, thus, mingled both immiscible phases, and was accompanied by phreatomagmatic processes. These processes led to the brecciation at the top of the impact melt rock sequence. Quenching of this breccia by the seawater prevented reworking of the solidified breccia layers upon subsequent deposition of suevite. Solid-state deformation, notably in the uppermost brecciated impact melt rock layers, attests to long-term gravitational settling of the peak ring.

scholarly journals Breakup of a long-period comet as the origin of the dinosaur extinction

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Siraj ◽  
Abraham Loeb
Keyword(s):  
Impact Crater ◽  
Main Belt ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Dinosaur Extinction ◽  
Chicxulub Impact Crater ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impact Events

AbstractThe origin of the Chicxulub impactor, which is attributed as the cause of the K/T mass extinction event, is an unsolved puzzle. The background impact rates of main-belt asteroids and long-period comets have been previously dismissed as being too low to explain the Chicxulub impact event. Here, we show that a fraction of long-period comets are tidally disrupted after passing close to the Sun, each producing a collection of smaller fragments that cross the orbit of Earth. This population could increase the impact rate of long-period comets capable of producing Chicxulub impact events by an order of magnitude. This new rate would be consistent with the age of the Chicxulub impact crater, thereby providing a satisfactory explanation for the origin of the impactor. Our hypothesis explains the composition of the largest confirmed impact crater in Earth’s history as well as the largest one within the last million years. It predicts a larger proportion of impactors with carbonaceous chondritic compositions than would be expected from meteorite falls of main-belt asteroids.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolf Uwe Reimold ◽  
Christian Koeberl
Keyword(s):  
Electron Backscatter Diffraction ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Impact Cratering ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
Meteorite Impacts ◽  
International Ocean Discovery Program ◽  
The University ◽  
Backscatter Diffraction ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT This paper does not have an abstract. CONFERENCE The Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution Conference VI (LMI VI) took place between 30 September and 3 October 2019 on the campus of the University of Brasília (UnB) in Brasília, Brazil. This series of essentially quintennial conferences has been a mainstay for three decades. It was initiated with the aim to review major research outcomes, share ideas, and fertilize new collaborations in the impact cratering and planetary science fields. The timing for LMI VI, related to the state of impact cratering research, was a good one. For example, the studies resulting from the important IODP-ICDP (International Ocean Discovery Program–International Continental Scientific Drilling Program) project, in which a deep drill core was retrieved from the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact structure—the smoking gun for the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary impact event coincident with the mass extinction at that time—were nearing completion and could be presented, in part, at LMI VI. Numerous other advances in impact research had been made in the preceding years (for example, state-of-the-art microstructural studies on accessary minerals with electron backscatter diffraction [EBSD]) and were extensively discussed at the conference. And, finally, interest in impact cratering has significantly increased in recent years, not only...

Deccan Volcanism or the Chicxulub Impact: The Chicken or Egg Question

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerta Keller
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Impact Crater ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Deccan Volcanism ◽  
Asteroid Impact ◽  
Global Climate Warming ◽  
Chicxulub Impact Crater ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

<p>The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (KTB or KPB) mass extinction is primarily known for the<br>demise of the dinosaurs, the Chicxulub impact, and the rancorous forty-year-old controversy<br>over the cause of this mass extinction. For the first 30 years, the controversy primarily revolved<br>around the age of the impact claimed as precisely KTB based on the assumption that it caused<br>the mass extinction. The iridium (Ir) anomaly at the KTB was claimed proof of the asteroid<br>impact, but no Ir was ever associated with impact evidence and recent findings reveal no<br>extraterrestrial component in PGEs or the KTB Ir anomaly. Impact melt rock glass spherules are<br>also claimed as indisputable evidence of the KTB age impact, but such spherule layers are<br>commonly reworked from the primary (oldest) layer in late Maastrichtian, KTB and Danian<br>sediments; thus only the oldest impact spherule layer documented near the base of zone CF1<br>~200 ky below the KTB can approximate the impact’s age. Similarly, the impact breccia in the<br>Chicxulub impact crater predates the KTB. The best age derived from Ar/Ar dating of impact<br>glass spherules is within 200 ky of the KTB and thus no evidence for the KTB age. All evidence<br>strongly suggests the Chicxulub impact most likely predates the mass extinction ~ 200 ky and<br>played no role in it.<br>Deccan volcanism (LIP) was dismissed as potential cause or even contributor to the KTB mass<br>extinction despite the fact that all other mass extinctions are associated with Large Igneous<br>Province (LIP) volcanism but none with an asteroid impact. During the last decade, Deccan<br>volcanism gained credence based on a succession of discoveries: 1) the mass extinction in<br>between the longest Deccan lava flows across India; 2) high-precision dating of the entire<br>sequence of Deccan volcanism based on UPb zircon dating; 3) recognition of four distinct<br>eruption pulses all related to global climate warming with the largest pulse beginning 20 ky prior<br>to and ending at the KTB; 4) Identifying the climate link to Deccan volcanism based on age<br>dating and mercury from Deccan eruptions in marine sediments; and 5) Identifying the KTB<br>mass extinction directly related to the major Deccan eruption pulse, hyperthermal warming and<br>ocean acidification all linked to global mercury fallout from Deccan eruptions in marine<br>sediments. Despite this remarkable culmination of evidence, the controversy continues with<br>impact proponents arguing that Deccan volcanism didn’t exist at the KTB – the impact was the<br>sole cause.</p>

Explosive interaction of impact melt and seawater following the Chicxulub impact event

Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon R. Osinski ◽  
Richard A.F. Grieve ◽  
Patrick J.A. Hill ◽  
Sarah L. Simpson ◽  
Charles Cockell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Impact Event ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Current Classification ◽  
Cenozoic Era ◽  
Geological Event ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of asteroids and comets with planetary surfaces is one of the most catastrophic, yet ubiquitous, geological processes in the solar system. The Chicxulub impact event, which has been linked to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction marking the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, is arguably the most significant singular geological event in the past 100 million years of Earth’s history. The Chicxulub impact occurred in a marine setting. How quickly the seawater re-entered the newly formed basin after the impact, and its effects of it on the cratering process, remain debated. Here, we show that the explosive interaction of seawater with impact melt led to molten fuel–coolant interaction (MFCI), analogous to what occurs during phreatomagmatic volcanic eruptions. This process fractured and dispersed the melt, which was subsequently deposited subaqueously to form a series of well-sorted deposits. These deposits bear little resemblance to the products of impacts in a continental setting and are not accounted for in current classification schemes for impactites. The similarities between these Chicxulub deposits and the Onaping Formation at the Sudbury impact structure, Canada, are striking, and suggest that MFCI and the production of volcaniclastic-like deposits is to be expected for large impacts in shallow marine settings.

scholarly journals The first day of the Cenozoic

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (39) ◽  
pp. 19342-19351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. S. Gulick ◽  
Timothy J. Bralower ◽  
Jens Ormö ◽  
Brendon Hall ◽  
Kliti Grice ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Thick Layer ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Global Cooling ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
International Ocean Discovery Program ◽  
Geologic Record ◽  
The Impact

Highly expanded Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary section from the Chicxulub peak ring, recovered by International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)–International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364, provides an unprecedented window into the immediate aftermath of the impact. Site M0077 includes ∼130 m of impact melt rock and suevite deposited the first day of the Cenozoic covered by <1 m of micrite-rich carbonate deposited over subsequent weeks to years. We present an interpreted series of events based on analyses of these drill cores. Within minutes of the impact, centrally uplifted basement rock collapsed outward to form a peak ring capped in melt rock. Within tens of minutes, the peak ring was covered in ∼40 m of brecciated impact melt rock and coarse-grained suevite, including clasts possibly generated by melt–water interactions during ocean resurge. Within an hour, resurge crested the peak ring, depositing a 10-m-thick layer of suevite with increased particle roundness and sorting. Within hours, the full resurge deposit formed through settling and seiches, resulting in an 80-m-thick fining-upward, sorted suevite in the flooded crater. Within a day, the reflected rim-wave tsunami reached the crater, depositing a cross-bedded sand-to-fine gravel layer enriched in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons overlain by charcoal fragments. Generation of a deep crater open to the ocean allowed rapid flooding and sediment accumulation rates among the highest known in the geologic record. The high-resolution section provides insight into the impact environmental effects, including charcoal as evidence for impact-induced wildfires and a paucity of sulfur-rich evaporites from the target supporting rapid global cooling and darkness as extinction mechanisms.

scholarly journals Raman spectroscopy of high-pressure phases in shocked L6 chondrite NWA 5011

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 848-858
Author(s):  
K. D. Litasov ◽  
D. D. Badyukov
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
High Pressure ◽  
Phase Diagrams ◽  
Equilibrium Phase ◽  
Calcium Ferrite ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Shock Process ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time ◽  
Late Stages

In the paper we present results of studies of thick shock melt veins in NWA 5011 L6 chondrite. The veins contain a wide variety of high-pressure phases that correspond to contrast values of pressure-temperature parameters on equilibrium phase diagrams. Olivine was transformed to ringwoodite and wadsleyte, orthopyroxene to majorite, akimotoite, and bridgmanite glass, maskelenite is converted to jadeite (+SiO2) and lingunite, apatite to tuite, and chromite to the phase with the calcium ferrite (mCF-FeCr2O4) structure. ) The peak PT shock parameters for NWA 5011 seem highest among the ones for other shocked chondrites according to wide occurrence of lingunite and bridgmanite glass and are considerable higher than 25 GPa and 2500 K. Akimotoite crystals in a quenched matrix of shock melt veins were found for the first time. Probably, they initially crystallized as bridgmanite, since akimotoite is not a liquidus phase in related systems. Plagioclase-chromite aggregates have been established, which characterize the late stages of the shock process and are formed during successive crystallization from isolated pockets of the impact melt.

scholarly journals Formation of the crater suevite sequence from the Chicxulub peak ring: A petrographic, geochemical, and sedimentological characterization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pim Kaskes ◽  
Sietze J. de Graaff ◽  
Jean-Guillaume Feignon ◽  
Thomas Déhais ◽  
Steven Goderis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Compositional Data ◽  
Ocean Water ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Planktic Foraminifera ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
International Ocean Discovery Program ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

This study presents a new classification of a ∼100-m-thick crater suevite sequence in the recent International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)-International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364 Hole M0077A drill core to better understand the formation of suevite on top of the Chicxulub peak ring. We provide an extensive data set for this succession that consists of whole-rock major and trace element compositional data (n = 212) and petrographic data supported by digital image analysis. The suevite sequence is subdivided into three units that are distinct in their petrography, geochemistry, and sedimentology, from base to top: the ∼5.6-m-thick non-graded suevite unit, the ∼89-m-thick graded suevite unit, and the ∼3.5-m-thick bedded suevite unit. All of these suevite units have isolated Cretaceous planktic foraminifera within their clastic groundmass, which suggests that marine processes were responsible for the deposition of the entire M0077A suevite sequence. The most likely scenario describes that the first ocean water that reached the northern peak ring region entered through a N-NE gap in the Chicxulub outer rim. We estimate that this ocean water arrived at Site M0077 within 30 minutes after the impact and was relatively poor in rock debris. This water caused intense quench fragmentation when it interacted with the underlying hot impact melt rock, and this resulted in the emplacement of the ∼5.6-m-thick hyaloclastite-like, non-graded suevite unit. In the following hours, the impact structure was flooded by an ocean resurge rich in rock debris, which caused the phreatomagmatic processes to stop and the ∼89-m-thick graded suevite unit to be deposited. We interpret that after the energy of the resurge slowly dissipated, oscillating seiche waves took over the sedimentary regime and formed the ∼3.5-m-thick bedded suevite unit. The final stages of the formation of the impactite sequence (estimated to be &lt;20 years after impact) were dominated by resuspension and slow atmospheric settling, including the final deposition of Chicxulub impactor debris. Cumulatively, the Site M0077 suevite sequence from the Chicxulub impact site preserved a high-resolution record that provides an unprecedented window for unravelling the dynamics and timing of proximal marine cratering processes in the direct aftermath of a large impact event.

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