
Chicxulub Crater Seismic Survey prepares way for future drilling
Author(s) -
Morgan Jo,
UrrutiaFucugauchi Jaime,
Gulick Sean,
Christeson Gail,
Barton Penny,
RebolledoVieyra Mario,
Melosh Jay
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2005eo360001
Subject(s) - impact crater , geology , meteorite , drilling , extinction event , structural basin , seismology , cretaceous , paleontology , caprock , geophysics , earth science , astrobiology , petrology , engineering , physics , mechanical engineering , biological dispersal , population , demography , sociology
Sixty‐five million years ago, a large meteorite hit the Earth and formed the ∼200‐km‐wide Chicxulub crater in Yucatán, Mexico. The well‐known, massive extinction event at the Cretaceous‐Tertiary (K‐T) boundary appears to have been caused, at least in part, by this impact. In the first few seconds after impact the surface of the Earth was pushed down to form a cavity ∼35 km deep, and in the next few hundred seconds this cavity collapsed to form a multi‐ring basin with an inner peak ring. To examine the rings and subsurface structure of this superbly preserved impact crater, a seismic experiment was shot across the crater in January and February 2005 by a team of scientists from Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom (Figure 1).