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1.
Abstract— Four exposures of Chicxulub impact ejecta along the Mexico‐Belize border have been sampled and analyzed for major and trace element abundances. The ejecta deposits consist of a lower spheroid bed, containing clay and dolomite spheroids, and an upper diamictite bed with boulders and clasts of limestone and dolomite. The matrix of both beds is composed of clay and micritic dolomite. The rare earth element (REE) compositions in the matrix of both units show strong similarities in concentrations and pattern. Furthermore, the Zr/TiO2 scatter plot shows a linear correlation indicating one source. These results indicate that the basal spheroid bed has the same source and was generated during the same event as the overlying diamictite bed, which lends support to a single‐impact scenario for the Albion Formation ejecta deposits. The elevated concentrations of non‐meteoritic elements such as Sb, As, U, and Zn in the matrix of the lower spheroid bed are regarded to have been derived from the sedimentary target rocks at the Chicxulub impact site. The positive Eu and Ce anomalies in clay concretion and in the matrix of the lower part of the spheroid bed in Albion Island quarry is probably related to processes involved in the impact, such as high temperature and oxidizing conditions. Analogous trace element anomalies have been reported from the distal Cretaceous‐Paleogene (K/T) boundary clay layer at different sites. Thus, the trace element signals, reported herein, are regarded to support a genetic link between the Chicxulub impact, the ejecta deposits along the Mexico‐Belize border, and the global K/T boundary layer.  相似文献   

2.
Abstract— The 40 km diameter Mjølnir Crater is located on the central Barents Sea shelf, north of Norway. It was formed about 142 ± 2.6 Myr ago by the impact of a 1–2 km asteroid into the shallow shelf clays of the Hekkingen Formation and the underlying Triassic to Jurassic sedimentary strata. A core recovered from the central high within the crater contains slump and avalanche deposits from the collapse of the transient crater and central high. These beds are overlain by gravity flow conglomerates, with laminated shales and marls on top. Here, impact and post‐impact deposits in this core are studied with focus on clay mineralogy obtained from XRD decomposition and simulation analysis methods. The clay‐sized fractions are dominated by kaolinite, illite, mixed‐layered clay minerals and quartz. Detailed analyses showed rather similar composition throughout the core, but some noticeable differences were detected, including varying crystal size of kaolinite and different types of illites and illite/smectite. These minerals may have been formed by diagenetic changes in the more porous/fractured beds in the crater compared to time‐equivalent beds outside the crater rim. Long‐term post‐impact changes in clay mineralogy are assumed to have been minor, due to the shallow burial depth and minor thermal influence from impact‐heated target rocks. Instead, the clay mineral assemblages, especially the abundance of chlorite, reflect the impact and post‐impact reworking of older material. Previously, an ejecta layer (the Sindre Bed) was recognized in a nearby well outside the crater, represented by an increase in smectite‐rich clay minerals, genetically equivalent to the smectite occurring in proximal ejecta deposits of the Chicxulub crater. Such alteration products from impact glasses were not detected in this study, indicating that little, if any, impact glass was deposited within the upper part of the crater fill. Crater‐fill deposits inherited their mineral composition from Triassic and Jurassic sediments underlying the impact site.  相似文献   

3.
Ejecta from the Connors Creek site in Michigan (500 km from the Sudbury Igneous Complex [SIC]), the Pine River site in western Ontario (650 km from the SIC), and the Coleraine site in Minnesota (980 km from the SIC) were petrographically and geochemically analyzed. Connors Creek was found to have approximately 2 m of ejecta, including shocked quartz, melt droplets, and accretionary lapilli; Pine River has similar deposits about 1 m in thickness, although with smaller lapilli; Coleraine contains only impact spherules in a 20 cm‐thick layer (impact spherules being similar to microkrystites or microtektites). The ejecta transition from chaotic deposits of massively bedded impactoclastic material with locally derived detritus at Connors Creek to a deposit with apparently very little detrital material that is primarily composed of melt droplets at Pine River to a deposit that is almost entirely composed of melt spherules at Coleraine. The major and trace element compositions of the ejecta confirm the previously observed similarity of the ejecta deposits to the Onaping Formation in the SIC. Platinum‐group element (PGE) concentrations from each of the sites were also measured, revealing significantly elevated PGE contents in the spherule samples compared with background values. PGE abundances in samples from the Pine River site can be reproduced by addition of approximately 0.2 wt% CI chondrite to the background composition of the underlying sediments in the core. PGE interelement ratios indicate that the Sudbury impact event was probably caused by a chondritic impactor.  相似文献   

4.
Abstract— Terrestrial impact structures provide field evidence for cratering processes on planetary bodies that have an atmosphere and volatiles in the target rocks. Here we discuss two examples that may yield implications for Martian craters: 1. Recent field analysis of the Ries crater has revealed the existence of subhorizontal shear planes (detachments) in the periphery of the crater beneath the ejecta blanket at 0.9–1.8 crater radii distance. Their formation and associated radial outward shearing was caused by weak spallation and subsequent dragging during deposition of the ejecta curtain. Both processes are enhanced in rheologically layered targets and in the presence of fluids. Detachment faulting may also occur in the periphery of Martian impacts and could be responsible for the formation of lobe‐parallel ridges and furrows in the inner layer of double‐layer and multiple‐layer ejecta craters. 2. The ejecta blanket of the Chicxulub crater was identified on the southeastern Yucatán Peninsula at distances of 3.0–5.0 crater radii from the impact center. Abundance of glide planes within the ejecta and particle abrasion both rise with crater distance, which implies a ground‐hugging, erosive, and cohesive secondary ejecta flow. Systematic measurement of motion indicators revealed that the flow was deviated by a preexisting karst relief. In analogy with Martian fluidized ejecta blankets, it is suggested that the large runout was related to subsurface volatiles and the presence of basal glide planes, and was influenced by eroded bedrock lithologies. It is proposed that ramparts may result from enhanced shear localization and a stacking of ejecta material along internal glide planes at decreasing flow rates when the flow begins to freeze below a certain yield stress.  相似文献   

5.
Abstract— During Leg 150 of the Ocean Drilling Project (ODP), two sites (903C and 904A) were cored that have sediments of the same biostratigraphic age as the upper Eocene tektite-bearing ejecta layer at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 612. Core 45X from ODP Site 904A (～4 km north of Site 612) contains a 5 cm thick tektite-bearing ejecta layer, and Core 56 from Site 903C (～8 km north-northwest of Site 904) contains a 2 cm thick layer of impact ejecta without any tektite or impact glass. Shocked quartz and feldspar grains, with multiple sets of planar deformation features (PDFs), and abundant coesite-bearing grains are present at both sites. The major oxide contents, trace element compositions, and rare earth element (REE) patterns of the Site 904 tektites are similar to those of the Site 612 tektites and to North American tektites (especially bediasites). The ?Sr and ?Nd values for one composite tektite sample from Site 904 fall within the range previously obtained for the Site 612 tektites, which defines a linear trend that, if extrapolated, would intersect the values obtained for North American tektites. The water contents of eight tektite fragments from Site 904 range from 0.017 to 0.098 wt%, and, thus, are somewhat higher than is typical for tektites. The heavy mineral assemblages of the 63–125 μm size fractions from the ejecta layers at Sites 612, 903, and 904 are all similar. Therefore, we conclude that the ejecta layer at all three sites is from the same impact event and that the tektites at Sites 904 and 612 belong to the North American tektite strewn field. Clinopyroxene-bearing (cpx) spherules occur below, or in the lower part of, the main ejecta layer at all three sites. At all three sites, the cpx spherules have been partly or completely replaced with pyrite that preserved the original crystalline textures. Site 612, 903, and 904 cpx spherules are similar to those found in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, central equatorial Pacific, western equatorial Pacific, and eastern Indian Ocean. The cpx event appears to have preceded the North American tektite event by 10–15 ka or less. The fining-upward sequence at all three sites and concentration of the denser, unmelted impact ejecta at the top of the tektite layer at Sites 612 and 904 suggest that the tektite-bearing ejecta layers are not the result of downslope redeposition and that the unmelted ejecta landed after the glass. Geographic variations in thickness of the tektite-bearing ejecta layer, the lack of carbonate clasts in the ejecta layer, and the low CaO content of the tektite glass suggest that the ejecta (including the tektite glass) were derived from the Chesapeake Bay structure rather than from the Toms Canyon structure. A sharp decline in microfossil abundances suggests that local environmental changes caused by the impact may have had adverse effects on benthic foraminifera, radiolaria, sponges, and fish as well as the planktic foraminifera.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract— Rock magnetic properties across several K‐T boundary sections have been investigated to reveal any possible magnetic signature associated with the remains of the impact event at the end of the Cretaceous. Studied sections' locations vary in distance to the Chicxulub structure from distal (Agost and Caravaca, Spain), through closer (ODP Hole 1049A, Blake Nose, North Atlantic), to proximal (El Mimbral and La Lajilla, Mexico). A clear magnetic signature is associated with the fireball layer in the most distal sections, consisting of a sharp increase in susceptibility and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM), and a decrease in remanence coercivity. Magnetic properties in these sections point to a distinctive ferrimagnetic phase, probably corresponding to the reported Mg‐ and Ni‐rich, highly oxidized spinels of meteoritic origin. At closer and proximal sections magnetic properties are different. Although there is an increase in susceptibility and SIRM associated with a rusty layer placed on top of the siliciclastic deposit in proximal sections, and with a similar limonitic layer on top of the spherule bed that defines the boundary at Blake Nose, the magnetic properties indicate a mixture of iron oxyhydroxides dominated by fine‐grained goethite. Based on previous geochemical studies at Blake Nose and new geochemical and PGE abundance measurements performed in this work at El Mimbral, this goethite‐rich layer can be interpreted as an effect of diagenetic remobilization and precipitation of Fe. There is not enough evidence to assert that this Fe concentration layer at proximal sections is directly related to deposition of fine meteoritic material. Magnetic, geochemical, and iridium data reject it as a primary meteoritic phase.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract– The Chicxulub structure in Mexico, one of the largest impact structures on Earth, was formed 65 Ma by a hypervelocity impact that led to the large mass extinction at the K‐Pg boundary. The Chicxulub impact structure is well preserved, but is buried beneath a sequence of carbonate sediments and, thus, requires drilling to obtain subsurface information. The Chicxulub Scientific Drilling Program was carried out at Hacienda Yaxcopoil in the framework of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program in 2001–2002. The structure was cored from 404 m down to 1511 m, through three intervals: 794 m of postimpact Tertiary sediments, a 100 m thick impactite sequence, and 616 m of preimpact Cretaceous rocks thought to represent a suite of megablocks. Physical property investigations show that the various lithologies, including the impactite units and the K‐Pg boundary layer, can be characterized by their physical properties, which depend on either changes in fabric or on mineralogical variations. The magnetic properties show mostly dia‐ or paramagnetic behavior, with the exception of the impactite units that indicate the presence of ferromagnetic, probably hydrothermally deposited magnetite and pyrrhotite. The magnetic fraction contributes mainly to enhanced magnetization in the impactite lithologies and, in this way, to the observed magnetic anomalies. The shape and orientation of the magnetic grains are varied and reflect inhomogeneous fabric development and the influence of impact‐related redeposition and hydrothermal activity. The Chicxulub impact occurred at the time of the reverse polarity geomagnetic chron 29R, and this finding is consistent with the age of the K‐Pg boundary.  相似文献   

8.
The ≤27 m thick Vakkejokk Breccia is intercalated in autochthon Lower Cambrian along the Caledonian front north of Lake Torneträsk, Lapland, Sweden. The spectacular breccia is here interpreted as a proximal ejecta layer associated with an impact crater, probably ~2–3 km in size, located below Caledonian overthrusts immediately north of the main breccia section. The impact would have taken place in a shallow‐marine environment ~520 Ma ago. The breccia comprises i) a strongly disturbed lower polymict subunit with occasional, in themselves brecciated, crystalline mega‐clasts locally exceeding 50 m surrounded by contorted sediments; ii) a middle, commonly normally graded, crystalline‐rich, polymict subunit, in turn locally overlain by iii) a thin fine‐grained quartz sandstone, <30 cm thick. The upper sandstone is sporadically either overlain, or replaced, by a conglomerate. In progressively more distal parts of the ejecta layer, the lower subunit is better described as only slightly disturbed strata. The lower subunit is suggested to have formed by ejecta bombardment of the strata surrounding the impact crater, even causing some net outwards mobilization of the sediments. The middle subunit and the uppermost quartz sandstone are considered resurge deposits. The top conglomerate may be caused by subsequent wave reworking and slumping of material from the elevated rim. Quartz grains showing planar deformation features are present in the graded polymict subunit and the upper sandstone, that is, the inferred resurge deposits.  相似文献   

9.
We present the results of numerical modeling of the formation of the Ries crater utilizing the two hydrocodes SOVA and iSALE. These standard models allow us to reproduce crater shape, size, and morphology, and composition and extension of the continuous ejecta blanket. Some of these results cannot, however, be readily reconciled with observations: the impact plume above the crater consists mainly of molten and vaporized sedimentary rocks, containing very little material in comparison with the ejecta curtain; at the end of the modification stage, the crater floor is covered by a thick layer of impact melt with a total volume of 6–11 km3; the thickness of true fallback material from the plume inside the crater does not exceed a couple of meters; ejecta from all stratigraphic units of the target are transported ballistically; no separation of sedimentary and crystalline rocks—as observed between suevites and Bunte Breccia at Ries—is noted. We also present numerical results quantifying the existing geological hypotheses of Ries ejecta emplacement from an impact plume, by melt flow, or by a pyroclastic density current. The results show that none of these mechanisms is consistent with physical constraints and/or observations. Finally, we suggest a new hypothesis of suevite formation and emplacement by postimpact interaction of hot impact melt with water or volatile‐rich sedimentary rocks.  相似文献   

10.
Abstract— A sequence of peat enriched with impact ejecta (allochthonous minerals and iridium) from Piila bog, 6 km away from the Kaali impact crater (island of Saaremaa, Estonia), was examined using pollen, radiocarbon, loss‐on‐ignition, and x‐ray diffraction analyses to date and assess the environmental effect of the impact. The vegetation in the surroundings of the Piila bog before the Kaali impact was a fen surrounded by forest in natural conditions. Significant changes occur in pollen accumulation and composition of pollen in the depth interval 170–178 cm, which contains above background values of iridium (up to 0.53 ppb). Two samples from the basal silt layer inside the main crater at Kaali contain 0.8 ppb of iridium, showing that iridium was present in the impact ejecta. The impact explosion swept the surroundings clean of forest shown by the threefold decrease in the total pollen influx (especially tree pollen influx), increase in influx and diversity of herb taxa, and the relative dominance of pine. Increased input of mineral matter measured by loss‐on‐ignition and the composition mineral matter (increased input of allochthonous minerals) together with an extensive layer of charcoal and wood stumps in Piila bog at the same depth interval points to an ecological catastrophe, with local impact‐induced wildfires reaching at least 6 km northwest of the epicenter. The disappearance of cereals in the pollen record suggests that farming, cultivation and possibly human habitation in the region ceased for a period of ～100 years. The meteorite explosion at Kaali ranged between the effects of Hiroshima and Tunguska. The age of the Kaali impact event is placed between 800–100 B.C. based on radiocarbon dating of the peat enriched with impact ejecta in the Piila bog.  相似文献   

11.
Velocity distributions are determined for ejecta from 14 experimental impacts into regolithlike powders in near-vacuum conditions at velocities from 5 to 2321 m/sec. Of the two powders, the finer produces slower ejecta. Ejecta include conical sheets with ray-producing jets and (in the fastest impacts at Vimp ? 700 m/sec) high-speed vertical plumes of uncertain nature. Velocities in the conical sheets and jets increase with impact velocity (Sect. 6). Ejecta velocities also increase as impact energy and crater size increase; a suggested method of estimating ejecta velocity distributions in large-scale impacts involves homologous scaling according to R/Rcrater, where R is radial distances from the crater (Sect. 7). The data are consistent with Holsapple-Schmidt scaling relationships (Sect. 8). The fraction of initial total impact energy partitioned into ejecta kinetic energy increases from around 0.1% for the slow impacts to around 10% for the fast impacts, with the main increase probably at the onset of the hypervelocity impact regime (Sect. 9). Crater shapes are discussed, including an example of a possible “frozen” transient cavity (Sect. 10). Ejecta blanket thickness distributions (as a function of R) vary with target material and impact speed, but the results measured for hypervelocity impacts agree with published experimental and theoretical values (Sect. 11). The low ejecta velocities for powder targets relative to rock targets, together with the paucity of powder ejecta in low-speed impacts ( < 1 projectile mass for Vimp ≈ 10 m/sec) enhance early planetary accretion effeciency beyond that in some earlier theoretical models; 100% efficient accretion is found for certain primordial conditions (Sect. 12).  相似文献   

12.
We present and interpret results of petrographic, mineralogical, and chemical analyses of the 1511 m deep ICDP Yaxcopoil‐1 (Yax‐1) drill core, with special emphasis on the impactite units. Using numerical model calculations of the formation, excavation, and dynamic modification of the Chicxulub crater, constrained by laboratory data, a model of the origin and emplacement of the impact formations of Yax‐1 and of the impact structure as a whole is derived. The lower part of Yax‐1 is formed by displaced Cretaceous target rocks (610 m thick), while the upper part comprises six suevite‐type allochthonous breccia units (100 m thick). From the texture and composition of these lithological units and from numerical model calculations, we were able to link the seven distinct impact‐induced units of Yax‐1 to the corresponding successive phases of the crater formation and modification, which are as follows: 1) transient cavity formation including displacement and deposition of Cretaceous “megablocks;” 2) ground surging and mixing of impact melt and lithic clasts at the base of the ejecta curtain and deposition of the lower suevite right after the formation of the transient cavity; 3) deposition of a thin veneer of melt on top of the lower suevite and lateral transport and brecciation of this melt toward the end of the collapse of the transient cavity (brecciated impact melt rock); 4) collapse of the ejecta plume and deposition of fall‐back material from the lower part of the ejecta plume to form the middle suevite near the end of the dynamic crater modification; 5) continued collapse of the ejecta plume and deposition of the upper suevite; 6) late phase of the collapse and deposition of the lower sorted suevite after interaction with the inward flowing atmosphere; 7) final phase of fall‐back from the highest part of the ejecta plume and settling of melt and solid particles through the reestablished atmosphere to form the upper sorted suevite; and 8) return of the ocean into the crater after some time and minor reworking of the uppermost suevite under aquatic conditions. Our results are compatible with: a) 180 km and 100 km for the diameters of the final crater and the transient cavity of Chicxulub, respectively, as previously proposed by several authors, and b) the interpretation of Chicxulub as a peak‐ring impact basin that is at the transition to a multi‐ring basin.  相似文献   

13.
Abstract The transition from impact to post‐impact rocks in the Yaxcopoil‐1 (Yax‐1) core is marked by a 2 cm‐thick clay layer characterized by dissolution features. The clay overlies a 9 cm‐thick hardground, overlying a 66 cm‐thick crossbedded unit, consisting of dolomite sandstone alternating with thin micro‐conglomerate layers with litho‐ and bioclasts and the altered remains of impact glass, now smectite. The micro‐conglomerates mark erosion surfaces. Microprobe and backscatter SEM analysis of the dolomite rhombs show an early diagenetic, complex‐zoned, idiomorphic overgrowth, with Mn‐rich zones, possibly formed by hot fluids related to cooling melt sheet in the crater. The pore spaces are filled with several generations of coelestite, barite, K‐feldpar, and sparry calcite. XRF core scanning analysis detected high Mn values in the crossbedded sediments but no anomalous enrichment of the siderophile elements Cr, Co, Fe, and Ni in the clay layer. Shocked quartz occurs in the crossbedded unit but is absent in the clay layer. The basal Paleocene marls are strongly dissolved and do not contain a basal Paleocene fauna. The presence of a hardground, the lack of siderophile elements, shocked quartz, or Ni‐rich spinels in the clay layer, and the absence of basal Paleocene biozones P0 and Pa all suggest that the top of the ejecta sequence and a significant part of the lower Paleocene is missing. Due to the high energy sedimentation infill, a hiatus at the top of the impactite is not unexpected, but there is nothing in the biostratigraphy, geochemistry, and petrology of the Yax‐1 core that can be used to argue against the synchroneity of the end‐Cretaceous mass‐extinctions and the Chicxulub crater.  相似文献   

14.
Abstract— The 65 Ma old Chicxulub impact structure with a diameter of about 180 km is again in the focus of the geosciences because of the recently commenced drilling of the scientific well Yaxcopoil‐ 1. Chicxulub is buried beneath thick post‐impact sediments, yet samples of basement lithologies in the drill cores provide a unique insight into age and composition of the crust beneath Yucatàn. This study presents major element, Sr, and Nd isotope data for Chicxulub impact melt lithologies and clasts of basement lithologies in impact breccias from the PEMEX drill cores C‐1 and Y‐6, as well as data for ejecta material from the K/T boundaries at La Lajilla, Mexico, and Furlo, Italy. The impact melt lithologies have an andesitic composition with significantly varying contents of Al, Ca, and alkali elements. Their present day 87Sr/86Sr ratios cluster at about 0.7085, and 143Nd/144Nd ratios range from 0.5123 to 0.5125. Compared to the melt lithologies that stayed inside the crater, data for ejecta material show larger variations. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios range from 0.7081 for chloritized spherules from La Lajilla to 0.7151 for sanidine spherules from Furlo. The 143Nd/144Nd ratio is 0.5126 for La Lajilla and 0.5120 for the Furlo spherules. In an εtCHUR(Nd)‐εtUR(Sr) diagram, the melt lithologies plot in a field delimited by Cretaceous platform sediments, various felsic lithic clasts and a newly found mafic fragment from a suevite. Granite, gneiss, and amphibolite have been identified among the fragments from crystalline basement gneiss. Their 87Sr/86Sr ratios range from 0.7084 to 0.7141, and their 143Nd/144Nd ratios range from 0.5121 to 0.5126. The TNdDM model ages vary from 0.7 to 1.4 Ga, pointing to different source terranes for these rocks. This leads us to believe that the geological evolution and the lithological composition of the Yucatàn basement is probably more complex than generally assumed, and Gondwanan as well as Laurentian crust may be present in the Yucatàn basement.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract Yaxcopoil‐1 (Yax‐1), drilled within the Chicxulub crater, was expected to yield the final proof that this impact occurred precisely 65 Myr ago and caused the mass extinction at the Cretaceous‐Tertiary (K/T) boundary. Instead, contrary evidence was discovered based on five independent proxies (sedimentologic, biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, stable isotopic, and iridium) that revealed that the Chicxulub impact predates the K/T boundary by about 300,000 years and could not have caused the mass extinction. This is demonstrated by the presence of five bioturbated glauconite layers and planktic foraminiferal assemblages of the latest Maastrichtian zone CF1 and is corroborated by magnetostratigraphic chron 29r and characteristic late Maastrichtian stable isotope signals. These results were first presented in Keller et al. (2004). In this study, we present more detailed evidence of the presence of late Maastrichtian planktic foraminifera, sedimentologic, and mineralogic analyses that demonstrate that the Chicxulub impact breccia predates the K/T boundary and that the sediments between the breccia and the K/T boundary were deposited in a normal marine environment during the last 300,000 years of the Cretaceous.  相似文献   

16.
Abstract— The Acraman impact ejecta from Bunyeroo Gorge in the central Flinders Ranges consist of clast-bearing and sandy sublayers set in a shale host rock. A calculated transient crater diameter for the Acraman impact of at least 34 km was obtained from average thicknesses and estimated distances of the ejecta from the impact in the Gawler Ranges. The ejecta contain numerous grains of quartz and zircon that display impact-produced features, including one or more sets of decorated planar deformation features. There is also much unshocked material incorporated in the ejecta layer. The coarse-grained ejecta layer embedded within fine-grained sediments allowed easy passage for diagenetic fluids that produced a porous honeycomb structure in the clays and enhanced the content of elements such as Cu, Pb, Zn, and U. The clay fraction of the ejecta layers consists of vermiculite and kaolinite, probably formed from alteration and weathering of glassy components. It appears that quartz and zircon grains are the only remnants unaltered by diagenetic processes.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract— The Lockne impact event took place in a Middle Ordovician (455 Ma) epicontinental sea. The impact resulted in an at least 13.5 km wide, concentric crater in the sea floor. Lockne is one of very few locations where parts of an ejecta layer have been preserved outside the crater structure. The ejecta from the Lockne impact rests on progressively higher stratigraphic levels with increasing distance from the crater, hence forming a slightly inclined discontinuity surface in the pre‐impact strata. We report on a ～30 cm thick sandy layer at Hallen, 45 km south of the crater centre. This layer has a fining upward sequence in its lower part, followed by low‐angle cross‐laminations indicating two opposite current directions. It is rich in quartz grains with planar deformation features and contains numerous, up to 15 cm large, granite clasts from the crystalline basement at the Lockne impact site. The layer is within a sequence dated to the Baltoniodus gerdae conodont subzone. The dating is corroborated by chitinozoans indicating the latest Kukruse time below and the late Idavere above the impact layer. According to the chitinozoans biostratigraphy, some erosion may have occurred because of deposition of the impact layer. The Hallen outcrop, today 45 km from the centre of the Lockne crater, is at present the most distant accessible occurrence of ejecta from the Lockne impact. It is also the most distant location so far found where the resurge of water towards the crater has affected the bottom sediments. A greater crater diameter than hitherto assumed, thus representing greater impact energy, might explain the extent of the ejecta blanket. Fluidisation of ejecta, to be expected at a marine‐target impact, might furthermore have facilitated the wide distribution of ejecta.  相似文献   

18.
The extended period of mass extinctions around the K/T boundary correlating with extraterrestrial amino acids in the sediment record constitutes strong evidence of a cometary cause. The input of extraterrestrial matter over 105 yr supports the hypothesis of a giant comet, fragmented into subcomets on close encounter with Jupiter, and subsequently perturbed into Earth-crossing orbits. Copious amounts of dust were emitted via this and possibly successive fragmenting encounters, and via normal cometary evaporation. The dynamics of dust from the disintegrating comet fragments favours retention in Earth-crossing orbits of the sub-micron fraction of organic composition. The shroud of dust accreted in the Earth's upper atmosphere varied with time and imposed climatic stresses that caused species extinctions over 105 yr. While the iridium peak in the sediments coincides with the Chicxulub crater impactor, other iridium detail suggests that some of the impactor material was reinjected into space and in part re-accreted by Earth from the interplanetary orbits.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract— The Chicxulub Scientific Drilling Project (CSDP), Mexico, produced a continuous core of material from depths of 404 to 1511 m in the Yaxcopoil‐1 (Yax‐1) borehole, revealing (top to bottom) Tertiary marine sediments, polymict breccias, an impact melt unit, and one or more blocks of Cretaceous target sediments that are crosscut with impact‐generated dikes, in a region that lies between the peak ring and final crater rim. The impact melt and breccias in the Yax‐1 borehole are 100 m thick, which is approximately 1/5 the thickness of breccias and melts exposed in the Yucatán‐6 exploration hole, which is also thought to be located between the peak ring and final rim of the Chicxulub crater. The sequence and composition of impact melts and breccias are grossly similar to those in the Yucatán‐6 hole. Compared to breccias in other impact craters, the Chicxulub breccias are incredibly rich in silicate melt fragments (up to 84% versus 30 to 50%, for example, in the Ries). The melt in the Yax‐1 hole was produced largely from the silicate basement lithologies that lie beneath a 3 km‐ thick carbonate platform in the target area. Small amounts of immiscible molten carbonate were ejected with the silicate melt, and clastic carbonate often forms the matrix of the polymict breccias. The melt unit appears to have been deposited while molten but brecciated after solidification. The melt fragments in the polymict breccias appear to have solidified in flight, before deposition, and fractured during transport and deposition.  相似文献   

20.
The Lonar impact crater, India, is one of the few known terrestrial impact craters excavated in continental basaltic target rocks (Deccan Traps, ~65 Ma). The impactites reported from the crater to date mainly include centimeter‐ to decimeter‐sized impact‐melt bombs, and aerodynamically shaped millimeter‐ and submillimeter‐sized impact spherules. They occur in situ within the ejecta around the crater rim and show schlieren structure. In contrast, non–in situ glassy objects, loosely strewn around the crater lake and in the ejecta around the crater rim do not show any schlieren structure. These non–in situ fragments appear to be similar to ancient bricks from the Daityasudan temple in the Lonar village. Synthesis of existing and new major and trace element data on the Lonar impact spherules show that (1) the target Lonar basalts incorporated into the spherules had undergone minimal preimpact alteration. Also, the paleosol layer as preserved between the top‐most target basalt flow and the ejecta blanket, even after the impact, was not a source component for the Lonar impactites, (2) the Archean basement below the Deccan traps were unlikely to have contributed material to the impactite parental melts, and (3) the impactor asteroid components (Cr, Co, Ni) were concentrated only within the submillimeter‐sized spherules. Two component mixing calculations using major oxides and Cr, Co, and Ni suggest that the Lonar impactor was a EH‐type chondrite with the submillimeter‐sized spherules containing ~6 wt% impactor components.  相似文献   

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