Physics
Scientific paper
Feb 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994gecoa..58.1393k&link_type=abstract
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 58, Issue 4, pp.1393-1397
Physics
4
Scientific paper
Organic matter separated from calcareous sandstone from the upper portion of a deep-water tsunami deposit at Arroyo el Mimbral, Taumalipas, Mexico, which marks the biostratigraphically defined Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, consists primarily of fossil charcoal, including semifusinite and pyrofusinite. Analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry revealed the highly aromatic and polyaromatic character of the organic matter assemblage, typical of the products of partial combustion. The organic matter probably originated as terrestrial vegetation that was caught in a firestorm and subsequently transported far offshore in the backwash of a megawave. These data are consistent with the hypothesis of combustion of large masses of vegetation triggered by a giant extraterrestrial impact in the Gulf-Caribbean region (probably forming the Chicxulub crater in Yucatán) at the very end of the Cretaceous Period.
Bensley David F.
Crelling John C.
Kruge Michael A.
Montanari Alessandro
Stankiewicz Artur B.
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