Schulte, Peter et al. (2010): The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

Leg/Site/Hole:
Identifier:
2010-041929
georefid

10.1126/science.1177265
doi

Creator:
Schulte, Peter
Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany
author

Alegret, Laia
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
author

Arenillas, Ignacio
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
author

Arz, Jose A.
University College London, United Kingdom
author

Barton, Penny J.
Pennsylvania State University, United States
author

Bown, Paul R.
University of Texas at Austin, United States
author

Bralower, Timothy J.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
author

Christeson, Gail L.
Open University, United Kingdom
author

Claeys, Philippe
Imperial College London, United Kingdom
author

Cockell, Charles S.
Universitaet Muenster, Federal Republic of Germany
author

Collins, Gareth S.
University of Vienna, Austria
author

Deutsch, Alexander
Tohoku University, Japan
author

Goldin, Tamara J.
Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Mexico
author

Goto, Kazuhisa
Natural Resources Canada, Canada
author

Grajales-Nishimura, Jose Manuel
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, United States
author

Grieve, Richard A. F.
Humboldt University Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
author

Gulick, Sean P. S.
Universities Space Research Association-Lunar and Planetary Institute, United States
author

Johnson, Kirk R.
University of Missouri, United States
author

Kiessling, Wolfgang
Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan
author

Koeberl, Christian
Purdue University, United States
author

Kring, David A.
Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco, Italy
author

MacLeod, Kenneth G.
University of Notre Dame, United States
author

Matsui, Takafumi
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, United States
author

Melosh, Jay
Planetary Science Institute, United States
author

Montanari, Alessandro
University of Hawaii, Manoa, United States
author

Morgan, Joanna V.
Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan, Mexico
author

Neal, Clive R.
Universite de Versailles, France
author

Nichols, Douglas J.
Bruker Nano GmbH, Federal Republic of Germany
author

Norris, Richard D.
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
author

Pierazzo, Elisabetta
Geological Survey of Canada, Canada
author

Ravizza, Greg
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
author

Rebolledo-Vieyra, Mario
Lund University, Sweden
author

Reimold, Wolf Uwe
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, United States
author

Robin, Eric
author

Salge, Tobias
author

Speijer, Robert P.
author

Sweet, Arthur R.
author

Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Jaime
author

Vajda, Vivi
author

Whalen, Michael T.
author

Willumsen, Pi S.
author

Identification:
The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
2010
Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, United States
327
5970
1214-1218
The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary approximately 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.
English
Coverage:Geographic coordinates:
North:75.0000
West:-92.0000East: 20.0000
South:-60.0000

Stratigraphy; Atlantic Ocean; biomass; biostratigraphy; C-13/C-12; carbon; Cenozoic; Chicxulub Crater; correlation; Cretaceous; Deep Sea Drilling Project; ejecta; Foraminifera; geochemistry; global; impacts; Invertebrata; isotope ratios; isotopes; K-T boundary; lower Paleocene; mass extinctions; Mesozoic; microfossils; mineral composition; miospores; Ocean Drilling Program; Pacific Ocean; Paleocene; Paleogene; palynomorphs; pollen; Protista; stable isotopes; stratigraphic boundary; Tertiary; Upper Cretaceous; Yucatan Peninsula;

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