Probing the hydrothermal system of the Chicxulub impact crater

David A. Kring, Sonia M. Tikoo, Martin Schmieder, Ulrich Riller, Mario Rebolledo-Vieyra, Sarah L. Simpson, Gordon R. Osinski, Jérôme Gattacceca, Axel Wittmann, Christina M. Verhagen, Charles S. Cockell, Marco J.L. Coolen, Fred J. Longstaffe, Sean P.S. Gulick, Joanna V. Morgan, Timothy J. Bralower, Elise Chenot, Gail L. Christeson, Philippe Claeys, Ludovic FerrièreCatalina Gebhardt, Kazuhisa Goto, Sophie L. Green, Heather Jones, Johanna Lofi, Christopher M. Lowery, Rubén Ocampo-Torres, Ligia Perez-Cruz, Annemarie E. Pickersgill, Michael H. Poelchau, Auriol S.P. Rae, Cornelia Rasmussen, Honami Sato, Jan Smit, Naotaka Tomioka, Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Michael T. Whalen, Long Xiao, Kosei E. Yamaguchi

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The ~180-km-diameter Chicxulub peak-ring crater and ~240-km multiring basin, produced by the impact that terminated the Cretaceous, is the largest remaining intact impact basin on Earth. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364 drilled to a depth of 1335 m below the sea floor into the peak ring, providing a unique opportunity to study the thermal and chemical modification of Earth's crust caused by the impact. The recovered core shows the crater hosted a spatially extensive hydrothermal system that chemically and mineralogically modified ~1.4 × 105 km3 of Earth's crust, a volume more than nine times that of the Yellowstone Caldera system. Initially, high temperatures of 300° to 400°C and an independent geomagnetic polarity clock indicate the hydrothermal system was long lived, in excess of 106 years.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereaaz3053
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalScience advances
Volume6
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 May 2020

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation1737199

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