The extraterrestrial impact evidence at the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary and sequence of environmental change on the continental shelf
The extraterrestrial impact evidence at the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary and sequence of environmental change on the continental shelf
复制标题
古新世—始新世边界的地外撞击证据及大陆架环境变化序列
DOI:
10.1098/rsta.2017.0081
复制
发表时间:
2018
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Fung, Megan K.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Schaller, Morgan F.;Fung, Megan K.
We have identified clear evidence of an extraterrestrial impact within the onset of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) that defines the Palaeocene–Eocene (P-E) boundary hyperthermal event (approx. 56 Ma) from several sites on the eastern Atlantic Coastal Plain and offshore. We review and update the state of the evidence for an impact at the P-E boundary, including a K-Ar cooling age of the ejecta that is indistinguishable from the depositional age at the P-E, which establishes the ejecta horizon as an isochronous stratigraphic indicator at the P-E. Immediately above the ejecta peak at the base of the coastal plain Marlboro Clay unit, we identify a sharp increase in charcoal abundance coincident with the previously observed dramatic increase in magnetic nanoparticles of soil pyrogenic origin. We therefore revisit the observed sequence of events through the P-E boundary on the western Atlantic Coastal Plain, showing that an extraterrestrial impact led to wildfires, landscape denudation and deposition of the thick Marlboro Clay, whose base coincides with the spherule horizon and CIE onset. The Sr/Ca ratio of the spherules indicates that the carbon responsible for the onset may be vaporized CaCO3target rock mixed with isotopically light carbon from the impactor or elsewhere. Crucially, we do not argue that the impact was responsible for the full manifestation of the CIE observed globally (onset to recovery approx. 170 kyr), rather that a rapid onset was triggered by the impact and followed by additional carbon from other processes such as the eruption of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. Such a scenario agrees well with recent modelling work, though it should be revisited more explicitly.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Hyperthermals: rapid and extreme global warming in our geological past’.
登录
查看更多内容
影响因子:
56.9
作者:
ALVAREZ, LW;ALVAREZ, W;MICHEL, HV
通讯作者:
MICHEL, HV
DOI:
--
发表时间:
1998
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
P. Buchanan;C. Koeberl;A. Reid
通讯作者:
A. Reid
影响因子:
1.6
作者:
A. Montanari;F. Asaro;H. Michel;J. Kennett
通讯作者:
J. Kennett
DOI:
--
发表时间:
1986
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
B. Glass;C. Hall;D. York
通讯作者:
D. York
DOI:
--
发表时间:
2000
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
J. Whitehead;D. Papanastassiou;J. Spray;R. Grieve;G. Wasserburg
通讯作者:
G. Wasserburg