skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Delayed calcareous nannoplankton boom-bust successions in the earliest Paleocene Chicxulub (Mexico) impact crater
Abstract The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg; 66 Ma) mass extinction was caused by a bolide impact on the Yucatán platform near modern Chicxulub, Mexico. Calcareous nannoplankton, a dominant group of primary producers, were almost eradicated at this time. Post-impact nannoplankton assemblages from Northern Hemisphere sites were characterized by a short-lived series of high-dominance, low-diversity acmes (“boom-bust” successions), which likely represent an unstable post-impact environment. Although these boom-bust successions are a global signal, the mechanisms that controlled the taxonomic switchovers between acmes are currently unknown. Here, we present detailed analyses of calcareous nannoplankton and planktic foraminiferal assemblages in a new K-Pg section from the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater. We show that although nannoplankton assemblages resemble the typical series of acmes at Tethyan sites, the termination of the “disaster” acme in the crater is delayed by at least 500 k.y. The coincidence between shifts in the dominant planktic foraminiferal trophic group and switchovers in nannoplankton boom-bust taxa suggests that this series of acmes may represent a gradual trend toward oligotrophy driven by the global restoration of biological pump efficiency. Thus, the global diachroneity of boom-bust successions likely reflects the differential pacing of biological pump restoration between oceanic basins and settings.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1737351
PAR ID:
10111090
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geology
Volume:
47
Issue:
8
ISSN:
0091-7613
Page Range / eLocation ID:
753 to 756
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Science Advances)
    null (Ed.)
    The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction is marked globally by elevated concentrations of iridium, emplaced by a hypervelocity impact event 66 million years ago. Here, we report new data from four independent laboratories that reveal a positive iridium anomaly within the peak-ring sequence of the Chicxulub impact structure, in drill core recovered by IODP-ICDP Expedition 364. The highest concentration of ultrafine meteoritic matter occurs in the post-impact sediments that cover the crater peak ring, just below the lowermost Danian pelagic limestone. Within years to decades after the impact event, this part of the Chicxulub impact basin returned to a relatively low-energy depositional environment, recording in unprecedented detail the recovery of life during the succeeding millennia. The iridium layer provides a key temporal horizon precisely linking Chicxulub to K-Pg boundary sections worldwide. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
    An asteroid impact in the Yucatán Peninsula set off a sequence of events that led to the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinction of 76% species, including the nonavian dinosaurs. The impact hit a carbonate platform and released sulfate aerosols and dust into Earth’s upper atmosphere, which cooled and darkened the planet—a scenario known as an impact winter. Organic burn markers are observed in K–Pg boundary records globally, but their source is debated. If some were derived from sedimentary carbon, and not solely wildfires, it implies soot from the target rock also contributed to the impact winter. Characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Chicxulub crater sediments and at two deep ocean sites indicate a fossil carbon source that experienced rapid heating, consistent with organic matter ejected during the formation of the crater. Furthermore, PAH size distributions proximal and distal to the crater indicate the ejected carbon was dispersed globally by atmospheric processes. Molecular and charcoal evidence indicates wildfires were also present but more delayed and protracted and likely played a less acute role in biotic extinctions than previously suggested. Based on stratigraphy near the crater, between 7.5 × 1014and 2.5 × 1015g of black carbon was released from the target and ejected into the atmosphere, where it circulated the globe within a few hours. This carbon, together with sulfate aerosols and dust, initiated an impact winter and global darkening that curtailed photosynthesis and is widely considered to have caused the K–Pg mass extinction. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; (, Scientific prospectus)
    null (Ed.)
    The Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico is unique. It is the only known terrestrial impact structure that has been directly linked to a mass extinction event and the only terrestrial impact with a global ejecta layer. Of the three largest impact structures on Earth, Chicxulub is the best preserved. Chicxulub is also the only known terrestrial impact structure with an intact, unequivocal topographic “peak ring.” Chicxulub’s role in the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction and its exceptional state of preservation make it an important natural laboratory for the study of both large impact crater formation on Earth and other planets and the effects of large impacts on Earth’s environment and ecology. Our understanding of the impact process is far from complete, and despite more than 30 y of intense debate, we are still striving to answer the question as to why this impact was so catastrophic. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 364 proposes to core through the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater to investigate (1) the nature and formational mechanism of peak rings, (2) how rocks are weakened during large impacts, (3) the nature and extent of postimpact hydrothermal circulation, (4) the deep biosphere and habitability of the peak ring, and (5) the recovery of life in a sterile zone. Of additional interest is the transition through a rare midlatitude record of the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM); the composition and character of impact breccias, melt rocks, and peak-ring rocks; the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Cenozoic sequence; and any observations from the core that would help us constrain the volume of dust and climatically active gases released into the stratosphere by this impact. Petrophysical property measurements on the core and wireline logs will be used to calibrate geophysical models, including seismic reflection data. Proposed drilling directly contributes to the IODP science plan initiatives (1) Deep Biosphere and the Subseafloor Ocean and (2) Environmental Change, Processes and Effects, in particular the environmental and biological perturbations caused by the Chicxulub impact. Expedition 364 will be implemented as a mission-specific platform expedition to obtain subseabed samples and downhole logging measurements from the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater. The expedition aims to core a single borehole as deep as 1500 meters below seafloor (mbsf) to recover rock cores from above and into the Chicxulub impact crater preserved under the Yucatán continental shelf. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Micropalaeontology)
    Sangiorgi, Francesca (Ed.)
    Abstract. In 1977–1978 and 1978–1979, the Ross Ice Shelf Project (RISP) recovered sediments from beneath the largest ice shelf in Antarctica at Site J-9 (∼82° S, 168° W), ∼450 km from open marine waters at the calving front of the Ross Ice Shelf and 890 km from the South Pole, one of the southernmost sites for marine sediment recovery in Antarctica. One important finding was the discovery of an active macrofauna, including crustaceans and fish, sustained below the ice shelf far from open waters. The sediment has a thin, unconsolidated upper unit (up to 20 cm thick) and a texturally similar but compacted lower unit (>1 m thick) containing reworked early, middle, and late Miocene diatom and calcareous benthic foraminiferal assemblages. A probable post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) disconformity separates the upper unit containing a dominantly agglutinated foraminiferal assemblage, from the lower unit consisting mostly of reworked Miocene calcareous benthic species, including Trifarina fluens, Elphidium magellanicum, Globocassidulina subglobosa, Gyroidina sp., and Nonionella spp. The presence of the polar planktic foraminiferal species Neogloboquadrina pachyderma and the endemic Antarcticella antarctica supports the late Miocene diatom age for the matrix of the lower unit. The microfossil assemblages indicate periods of ice sheet collapse and open-water conditions south of Site J-9 during warm intervals of the early, middle, and late Miocene, including the Miocene Climatic Optimum (∼17–14.7 Ma), demonstrating the dynamic nature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and Ross Ice Shelf during the Neogene. The foraminiferal assemblage of the upper unit is unique to the Ross Sea and suggests the influence of a sub-ice-shelf water mass proximal to the retreating post-LGM grounding zone. This unique assemblage is strongly dominated by the bathyal, cold-water agglutinated genus Cyclammina. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, Geological Society, London, Special Publications)
    Abstract Until recently, information about the end of the Cretaceous was based upon investigation of global outcrop sections. New subsurface drilling and characterization from well cores and logs in the Gulf of Mexico Basin have greatly illuminated the end Cretaceous event. However, the palaeogeography of the late Maastrichtian just prior to bolide impact is less well understood and is of great importance in terms of modelling the resulting distribution and composition of the Chicxulub impact material, as well as tsunami and seiche wave height. Here, we examine the Maastrichtian strata in the basin, synthesizing lithostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy, tectonic plate reconstructions, global and local sea level history, palaeoclimate and depositional systems. Our new Maastrichtian palaeogeographical reconstruction shows the basin prior to the Chicxulub impact at a time of globally high sea level, with widespread deposition of deepwater chalks and shallow marine carbonates and local siliciclastic shorelines fed by the nascent Cordilleran belt. Stratigraphic correlations of wells and outcrops illustrate the range of palaeoenvironments from coastal plain to deep marine. As much as 610 m (2000 ft) of Maastrichtian and Campanian section is mapped around the basin, reflecting accommodation provided by basin subsidence, salt deflation and palaeophysiography. A large thickness of carbonates accumulated in the basin centre, with steep shoreline to basin gradients particularly in Mexico. At the end of the Cretaceous, carbonate palaeoenvironments probably covered 96% of the Gulf of Mexico Basin, with less than 4% of the area likely occupied by siliciclastic systems, a distribution that evolved from the Early Cretaceous. Our maps thus explain dominance of carbonate breccia and chalks in K–Pg boundary units deposited over the basin sites proximal or distal to the Chicxulub impact crater. This also elucidates the large impedance contrast and high amplitude seismic response of the K–Pg boundary horizon, mappable over vast portions of the basin. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email