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      A steeply-inclined trajectory for the Chicxulub impact

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          Abstract

          The environmental severity of large impacts on Earth is influenced by their impact trajectory. Impact direction and angle to the target plane affect the volume and depth of origin of vaporized target, as well as the trajectories of ejected material. The asteroid impact that formed the 66 Ma Chicxulub crater had a profound and catastrophic effect on Earth’s environment, but the impact trajectory is debated. Here we show that impact angle and direction can be diagnosed by asymmetries in the subsurface structure of the Chicxulub crater. Comparison of 3D numerical simulations of Chicxulub-scale impacts with geophysical observations suggests that the Chicxulub crater was formed by a steeply-inclined (45–60° to horizontal) impact from the northeast; several lines of evidence rule out a low angle (<30°) impact. A steeply-inclined impact produces a nearly symmetric distribution of ejected rock and releases more climate-changing gases per impactor mass than either a very shallow or near-vertical impact.

          Abstract

          The authors here present a 3D model that simulates the formation of the Chicxulub impact crater. Based on asymmetries in the subsurface structure of the Chicxulub crater, the authors diagnose impact angle and direction and suggest a steeply inclined (60° to horizontal) impact from the northeast.

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          The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.

          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.
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            A Reevaluation of Impact Melt Production

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              • Article: not found

              Modeling damage and deformation in impact simulations

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                g.collins@imperial.ac.uk
                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2041-1723
                26 May 2020
                26 May 2020
                2020
                : 11
                : 1480
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2113 8111, GRID grid.7445.2, Department Earth Science and Engineering, , Imperial College London, ; London, SW7 2AZ UK
                [2 ]GRID grid.5963.9, Institute of Geology, , University of Freiburg, ; Freiburg, 79104 Germany
                [3 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9924, GRID grid.89336.37, Institute for Geophysics and Department of Geological Sciences, , University of Texas at Austin, ; Austin, TX 78758 USA
                [4 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9924, GRID grid.89336.37, Institute for Geophysics, , University of Texas at Austin, ; Austin, TX USA
                [5 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2194 6418, GRID grid.29172.3f, Laboratoire GeoRessources, , Université de Lorraine, ; Vandoeuvre-lés-Nancy, France
                [6 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2290 8069, GRID grid.8767.e, Analytical, Environmental and Geochemistry, , Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ; Brussels, Belgium
                [7 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 7988, GRID grid.4305.2, UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy, , University of Edinburgh, ; Edinburgh, UK
                [8 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0375 4078, GRID grid.1032.0, Western Australia Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, , Curtin University, ; Bentley, WA 6102 Australia
                [9 ]Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria
                [10 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1033 7684, GRID grid.10894.34, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre of Polar and Marine Research, ; Bremerhaven, Germany
                [11 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2151 536X, GRID grid.26999.3d, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, , University of Tokyo, ; Tokyo, Japan
                [12 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2097 4281, GRID grid.29857.31, Department of Geosciences, , Pennsylvania State University, ; University Park, PA USA
                [13 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0944 145X, GRID grid.491513.b, Lunar and Planetary Institute, ; Houston, TX USA
                [14 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2097 0141, GRID grid.121334.6, Géosciences Montpellier, CNRS, , Université de Montpellier, ; Montpellier, France
                [15 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2157 9291, GRID grid.11843.3f, Groupe de Physico-Chimie de l’Atmosphère, L’Institut de Chimie et Procédés pour l’Énergie, l’Environnement et la Santé, , Université de Strasbourg, ; Strasbourg, France
                [16 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2159 0001, GRID grid.9486.3, Instituto de Geofísica, , Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México, ; Ciudad De México, Mexico
                [17 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2193 314X, GRID grid.8756.c, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, , University of Glasgow, ; Glasgow, UK
                [18 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9762 0345, GRID grid.224137.1, Argon Isotope Facility, , Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, ; East Kilbride, UK
                [19 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2193 0096, GRID grid.223827.e, Department of Geology and Geophysics, , University of Utah, ; Salt Lake City, UT USA
                [20 ]Unidad de Ciencias del Agua, Mérida, Mexico
                [21 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2287 2617, GRID grid.9026.d, Institut für Geologie, , Universität Hamburg, ; Hamburg, Germany
                [22 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2191 0132, GRID grid.410588.0, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, ; Kanagawa, Japan
                [23 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1754 9227, GRID grid.12380.38, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, ; Amsterdam, Netherlands
                [24 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8796, GRID grid.430387.b, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, , Rutgers University, ; Piscataway Township, NJ USA
                [25 ]ISNI 0000000419368956, GRID grid.168010.e, Department of Geophysics, , Stanford University, ; Stanford, CA USA
                [26 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2191 0132, GRID grid.410588.0, Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, , Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, ; Kochi, Japan
                [27 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 981X, GRID grid.70738.3b, Department of Geosciences, , University of Alaska Fairbanks, ; Fairbanks, AK USA
                [28 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2151 2636, GRID grid.215654.1, Eyring Materials Center, , Arizona State University, ; Tempe, AZ USA
                [29 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1760 9015, GRID grid.503241.1, School of Earth Sciences, Planetary Science Institute, , China University of Geosciences, ; Wuhan, China
                [30 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9290 9879, GRID grid.265050.4, Department of Chemistry, , Toho University, ; Funabashi, Chiba Japan
                [31 ]GRID grid.431665.3, NASA Astrobiology Institute, ; Mountain View, CA USA
                [32 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0637 3991, GRID grid.423138.f, Planetary Science Institute, ; Tucson, AZ USA
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6087-6149
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8744-4461
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8790-873X
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4740-9068
                Article
                15269
                10.1038/s41467-020-15269-x
                7251121
                32457325
                1f56d2cb-83d0-4916-8141-8fc36bdafb9b
                © The Author(s) 2020

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 1 August 2019
                : 27 February 2020
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                © The Author(s) 2020

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                asteroids, comets and kuiper belt
                Uncategorized
                asteroids, comets and kuiper belt

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