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Chicxulub impactites: Geochemical clues to the precursor rocks
Author(s) -
KETTRUP Bianca,
DEUTSCH Alexander,
OSTERMANN Markus,
AGRINIER Pierre
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2000.tb01511.x
Subject(s) - geology , lithology , breccia , geochemistry , mineralogy , impact structure , horizon , ejecta , trace element , impact crater , physics , astronomy , quantum mechanics , supernova
— The 65 Ma Chicxulub impact structure, Mexico, with a diameter of ∼180 km is the focus of geoscientific research because of its link to the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous‐Tertiary (K/T) boundary. Chicxulub, now buried beneath thick post‐impact sediments, is probably one of the best‐preserved terrestrial impact structures known. Because of its inaccessibility, only limited samples on the impact lithologies from a few drill cores are available. We report major element and Sr‐, Nd‐, O‐, and C‐isotopic data for Chicxulub impact‐melt lithologies and basement clasts in impact breccias of drill cores C‐1 and Y‐6, and for melt particles in the Chicxulub ejecta horizon at the K/T boundary in Beloc, Haiti. The melt lithologies with SiO 2 ranging from 58 to ∼63 wt% show significant variations in the content of Al, Ca, and the alkalies. In the melt matrix samples, δ 13 C of the calcite is about −3%o. The δ 18 O values for the siliceous melt matrices of Y‐6 samples range from 9.9 to 12.4%o. Melt lithologies and the black Haitian glass have rather uniform 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.7079 to 0.7094); only one lithic fragment displays 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of 0.7141. The Sr model ages T Sr UR for most lithologies range from 830 to 1833 Ma; unrealistic negative model ages point to an open Rb‐Sr system with loss of Rb in a hydrothermal process. The 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ratios for all samples, except one basement clast with 143 Nd/ 144 Nd of 0.5121, cluster at 0.5123 to 0.5124. In an ɛ Nd ‐ɛ Sr diagram, impactites plot in a field delimited by ɛ Nd of −2 to −6, and ɛ Sr of 55 to 69. This field is not defined by the basement lithologies described to occur as lithic clasts in impact breccias and Cretaceous sediments. At least one additional intermediate to mafic precursor component is required to explain the data.