The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
Schulte Peter, Alegret Laia, Arenillas Ignacio, Arz José A, Barton Penny J, Bown Paul R, Bralower Timothy J, Christeson Gail L, Claeys Philippe, Cockell Charles S, Collins Gareth S, Deutsch Alexander, Goldin Tamara J, Goto Kazuhisa, Grajales-Nishimura José M, Grieve Richard A F, Gulick Sean P S, Johnson Kirk R, Kiessling Wolfgang, Koeberl Christian, Kring David A, MacLeod Kenneth G, Matsui Takafumi, Melosh Jay, Montanari Alessandro, Morgan Joanna V, Neal Clive R, Nichols Douglas J, Norris Richard D, Pierazzo Elisabetta, Ravizza Greg, Rebolledo-Vieyra Mario, Reimold Wolf Uwe, Robin Eric, Salge Tobias, Speijer Robert P, Sweet Arthur R, Urrutia-Fucugauchi Jaime, Vajda Vivi, Whalen Michael T, Willumsen Pi S
Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2010 · PMID 20203042 · 인용 1.6k
The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary approximately 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.