TY - JOUR
T1 - Coeval 40Ar/39Ar ages of 65.0 million years ago from Chicxulub crater melt rock and Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary tektites
AU - Swisher, Carl C.
AU - Grajales-Nishimura, José M.
AU - Montanari, Alessandro
AU - Margolis, Stanley V.
AU - Claeys, Philippe
AU - Alvarez, Walter
AU - Renne, Paul
AU - Cedillo-Pardo, Esteban
AU - Maurrasse, Florentin J.M.R.
AU - Curtis, Garniss H.
AU - Smit, Jan
AU - McWilliams, Michael O.
PY - 1992
Y1 - 1992
N2 - 40Ar/39Ar dating of drill core samples of a glassy melt rock recovered from beneath a massive impact breccia contained within the 180-kilometer subsurface Chicxulub crater in Yucatán, Mexico, has yielded well-behaved incremental heating spectra with a mean plateau age of 64.98 ± 0.05 million years ago (Ma). The glassy melt rock of andesitic composition was obtained from core 9 (1390 to 1393 meters) in the Chicxulub 1 well. The age of the melt rock is virtually indistinguishable from 40Ar/39Ar ages obtained on tektite glass from Beloc, Haiti, and Arroyo el Mimbral, northeastern Mexico, of 65.01 ± 0.08 Ma (mean plateau age for Beloc) and 65.07 ± 0.10 Ma (mean total fusion age for both sites). The 40Ar/39Ar ages, in conjunction with geochemical and petrological similarities, strengthen the recent suggestion that the Chicxulub structure is the source for the Haitian and Mexican tektites and is a viable candidate for the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary impact site.
AB - 40Ar/39Ar dating of drill core samples of a glassy melt rock recovered from beneath a massive impact breccia contained within the 180-kilometer subsurface Chicxulub crater in Yucatán, Mexico, has yielded well-behaved incremental heating spectra with a mean plateau age of 64.98 ± 0.05 million years ago (Ma). The glassy melt rock of andesitic composition was obtained from core 9 (1390 to 1393 meters) in the Chicxulub 1 well. The age of the melt rock is virtually indistinguishable from 40Ar/39Ar ages obtained on tektite glass from Beloc, Haiti, and Arroyo el Mimbral, northeastern Mexico, of 65.01 ± 0.08 Ma (mean plateau age for Beloc) and 65.07 ± 0.10 Ma (mean total fusion age for both sites). The 40Ar/39Ar ages, in conjunction with geochemical and petrological similarities, strengthen the recent suggestion that the Chicxulub structure is the source for the Haitian and Mexican tektites and is a viable candidate for the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary impact site.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.257.5072.954
DO - 10.1126/science.257.5072.954
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0026474461
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 257
SP - 954
EP - 958
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 5072
ER -