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

The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary similar to 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....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Schulte, P, Alegret, L, Arenillas, I, Arz, JA, Barton, PJ, Bown, PR, Bralower, TJ, Christeson, GL, Claeys, P, Cockell, CS, Collins, GS, Deutsch, A, Goldin, TJ, Goto, K, Grajales-Nishimura, JM, Grieve, RAF, Gulick, SPS, Johnson, KR, Kiessling, W, Koeberl, C, Kring, DA, MacLeod, KG, Matsui, T, Melosh, J, Montanari, A, Morgan, JV, Neal, CR, Nichols, DJ, Norris, RD, Pierazzo, E, Ravizza, G, Rebolledo-Vieyra, M, Reimold, WU, Robin, E, Salge, T, Speijer, RP, Sweet, AR, Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J, Vajda, V, Whalen, MT, Willumsen, PS
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE 2010
Subjects:
WESTERN NORTH-ATLANTIC
K-P BOUNDARY
TERTIARY BOUNDARY
YUCATAN PENINSULA
NEW-ZEALAND
EL KEF
CRATER
EVENT
PERTURBATIONS
SURVIVORSHIP
New Zealand
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/166773/
Description
Summary:The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary similar to 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.

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