Chicxulub Impact Event
A Chicxulub Impact Event is an asteroid impact event that occurred around 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.
- Context:
- It can (typically) be associated with a Chicxulub Crater.
- It can (typically) be associated with a Chicxulub Asteroid, estimated at 10 to 15 kilometers in diameter.
- It can have been a significant factor in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which led to the extinction of most dinosaur species.
- It resulted in the creation of the Chicxulub Crater, located in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
- It can have released energy equivalent to billions of atomic bombs, causing massive global climate changes.
- It can likely have caused massive tsunamis, wildfires, and a Nuclear Winter Effect from debris blocking sunlight.
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- Example(s):
- The discovery of a layer of iridium-rich clay around the world is evidence of this event.
- The presence of shocked quartz and tektites in a wide area surrounding the Chicxulub Crater.
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- Counter-Example(s):
- The Tunguska Event was also an asteroid impact, but much smaller and did not cause mass extinction.
- The formation of the Barringer Crater, also known as Meteor Crater, in Arizona, which was caused by a much smaller meteorite impact.
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- See: Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction Event, Iridium, Crater, Asteroid, Impact Event.
- See: Dinosaur, NASA, STS-99, Cenote, Sinkhole, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary, CM Chondrite, CR Chondrite, Carbonaceous Chondrite, Yucatán, International Phonetic Alphabet.
References
2023
- (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater Retrieved:2023-6-5.
- The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore near the community of Chicxulub, after which it is named. It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large asteroid, about in diameter, struck Earth. The crater is estimated to be in diameter and in depth. It is the second largest confirmed impact structure on Earth, and the only one whose peak ring is intact and directly accessible for scientific research.
The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield, geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán Peninsula during the late 1970s. Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search. Later, through contact with Alan R. Hildebrand in 1990, Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature. Evidence for the crater's impact origin includes shocked quartz, a gravity anomaly, and tektites in surrounding areas.
The date of the impact coincides with the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (commonly known as the K–Pg or K–T boundary). It is now widely accepted that the resulting devastation and climate disruption was the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction of 75% of plant and animal species on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
- The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore near the community of Chicxulub, after which it is named. It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large asteroid, about in diameter, struck Earth. The crater is estimated to be in diameter and in depth. It is the second largest confirmed impact structure on Earth, and the only one whose peak ring is intact and directly accessible for scientific research.