| Title | Size and structure of the Chicxulub crater revealed by horizontal gravity gradients and cenotes |
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| Author | Hildebrand, A R; Pilkington, M; Connors, M; Ortiz-Aleman, C; Chavez, R E |
| Source | Nature vol. 376, no. 6539, 1995 p. 415-417, https://doi.org/10.1038/376415a0 |
| Year | 1995 |
| Alt Series | Geological Survey of Canada, Contribution Series 66994 |
| Publisher | Springer Nature |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Area | Yucatán Peninsula; Mexico |
| Lat/Long WENS | -90.2500 -89.2500 21.5000 20.5000 |
| Subjects | geophysics; extraterrestrial geology; meteorite craters; sinkholes; gravity anomalies; bouguer anomalies; groundwater flow; Cretaceous; Tertiary |
| Illustrations | cross-sections; sketch maps |
| Released | 1995 08 03 |
| Abstract | IT is now widely believed that a large impact occurred on the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, and that the buried Chicxulub structure in Yucatán, Mexico, is the resulting crater24. Knowledge
of the size and internal structure of the Chicxulub crater is necessary for quantifying the effects of the impact on the Cretaceous environment. Although much information bearing on the crater's structure is available, diameter estimates range from
170 to 300 km (refs 1á¤-7), corresponding to an order of magnitude variation in impact energy. Here we show the diameter of the crater to be ~ 180 km by examining the horizontal gradient of the Bouguer gravity anomaly over the structure. This size is
confirmed by the distribution of karst features in the Yucatan region (mainly water-filled sinkholes, known as cenotes). The coincidence of cenotes and peripheral gravity-gradient maxima suggests that cenote formation is closely related to the
presence of slump faults near the crater rim. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 204721 |
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