Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p34a..05p&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P34A-05
Mathematics
Logic
[1517] Geomagnetism And Paleomagnetism / Magnetic Anomalies: Modeling And Interpretation, [5420] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Impact Phenomena, Cratering
Scientific paper
A new three-dimensional (3-D) geophysical-geological model is presented for the Chicxulub multiring crater. Chicxulub crater, located in the northwestern Yucatan peninsula, southern Gulf of Mexico, was formed by a large impact at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. The structure is the best preserved example of a large complex multi-ring crater in the terrestrial record. Investigation of this structure is important for understanding of mechanisms for formation of large impact basins on other planetary surfaces. Therefore, it has been intensively investigated in the past two decades, by geological and geophysical surveys and numerical modeling, mapping the morphology, structure and geometry of the crater. Our new 3-D model is obtained from joint inversion of gravity and aeromagnetic data and constrained by borehole data on land and seismic lines on the marine area. For the modeling, we use an inversion method that estimates depth to the top of an assemblage of rectangular prisms from quadratic programming. We use six different prismatic assemblages to model the crater units that include the melt, suevitic breccias, Bunte breccias, Cretaceous carbonates, upper crust, lower crust and Tertiary carbonate sediments. Each assemblage has a uniform density contrast. Prisms are 10 x 10 km with variable height determined in the inversion. Each prism is assigned an ID number for identification through the inversion procedure. Different density contrasts were used in the inversion. The resulting best-fit model accounts for the observed data sets reasonably well (91 %), and agrees with constraints from the seismic and borehole data on the major features. Analyzing the faults, these are clearly circular, showing a circular fracturing system. Fault systems over the pre-impact carbonates are related with the rings observed on the gravity horizontal gradients. The gravity high in the central sector is modeled by the structural uplift, which presents high density contrasts and a diameter of about 60 km. The melt sheet is located at a depth of about 1.5 km, with a variable shape in both N-S and E-W directions. Thickness of melt sheet decreases closer to the central uplift, where it lies at greater depths. The thickness of the breccias deposits is larger in the central eastern sector. From the elliptical shape of the modeled central uplift, we speculatively infer the direction and angle of impacting body.
Batista-Rodriguez J. A.
Perez-Flores M. A.
Urrutia Fucugauchi Jaime
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