The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary

The Fall of the Dinosaurs According to the fossil record, the rule of dinosaurs came to an abrupt end ∼65 million years ago, when all nonavian dinosaurs and flying reptiles disappeared. Several possible mechanisms have been suggested for this mass extinction, including a large asteroid impact and ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Schulte, Peter, Alegret, Laia, Arenillas, Ignacio, Arz, José A., Barton, Penny J., Bown, Paul R., Bralower, Timothy J., Christeson, Gail L., Claeys, Philippe, Cockell, Charles S., Collins, Gareth S., Deutsch, Alexander, Goldin, Tamara J., Goto, Kazuhisa, Grajales-Nishimura, José M., Grieve, Richard A. F., Gulick, Sean P. S., Johnson, Kirk R., Kiessling, Wolfgang, Koeberl, Christian, Kring, David A., MacLeod, Kenneth G., Matsui, Takafumi, Melosh, Jay, Montanari, Alessandro, Morgan, Joanna V., Neal, Clive R., Nichols, Douglas J., Norris, Richard D., Pierazzo, Elisabetta, Ravizza, Greg, Rebolledo-Vieyra, Mario, Reimold, Wolf Uwe, Robin, Eric, Salge, Tobias, Speijer, Robert P., Sweet, Arthur R., Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Jaime, Vajda, Vivi, Whalen, Michael T., Willumsen, Pi S.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2010
Subjects:
Ocean acidification
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1177265
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1177265
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Summary:The Fall of the Dinosaurs According to the fossil record, the rule of dinosaurs came to an abrupt end ∼65 million years ago, when all nonavian dinosaurs and flying reptiles disappeared. Several possible mechanisms have been suggested for this mass extinction, including a large asteroid impact and major flood volcanism. Schulte et al. (p. 1214 ) review how the occurrence and global distribution of a global iridium-rich deposit and impact ejecta support the hypothesis that a single asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, triggered the extinction event. Such an impact would have instantly caused devastating shock waves, a large heat pulse, and tsunamis around the globe. Moreover, the release of high quantities of dust, debris, and gases would have resulted in a prolonged cooling of Earth's surface, low light levels, and ocean acidification that would have decimated primary producers including phytoplankton and algae, as well as those species reliant upon them.

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