[meteorite-list] Alaskan Geologist Studies Chicxulub Impact Crater

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:27:21 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200701222027.MAA29398_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.uaf.edu/news/headlines/20070117095149.html

UAF geologist studies Chicxulub impact crater
By Melissa Hart
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
January 17, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

About 65 million years ago, a massive disruption led to worldwide
extinction of dinosaurs. The impact of a giant asteroid created massive
tsunamis and spewed forth a global cloud of carbon gases that altered
Earth's atmosphere and blocked the light for weeks, possibly years. In
recent years, that impact event has been linked to a 112-mile-wide
crater, dubbed Chicxulub, on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Since its discovery in the 1980s, the Chicxulub crater has left its own
impact on sky-watchers and sci-fi fans worldwide, and impact events have
been depicted in Hollywood films such as "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact,"
as well as countless artistic renditions.

Despite the spotlight on the theories surrounding the impact, Michael
Whalen, associate professor of geology at University of Alaska
Fairbanks, has managed to stay "out of the limelight, yet into the
limestone" with his work sampling the core of the crater. Due to the
efforts of Buck Sharpton, UAF vice chancellor for research, Whalen
became part of an international effort to correlate seismic data with
information obtained from a drill hole that reaches more than 1.2 miles
deep, through the impact layer and beyond.

Interestingly enough, unlike other more noticeable craters, the
Chicxulub crater spent 55 million years in virtual obscurity, due to the
fast infilling that masked its presence. Speedy recovery, which by
geologists' standards amounts to about 10 million years, preserved the
crater by mantling it with sediment, attracting geologists like Whalen,
who studies the effects of extinction events on carbonate layers, also
known as limestone, and the organisms that make up those layers.

On Jan. 20, Whalen will be traveling with a team to the Chicxulub site
for a week to obtain more core samples in order to get a better
understanding of how the crater filled in and how the earth itself
recovered from the massive impact. He's also part of an ongoing
collaboration that is trying to secure funding to drill two more holes
in the crater, one offshore and one through the peak ring.

CONTACT: Michael Whalen, associate professor, geology and geophysics, at
(907) 474-5302 or via e-mail at mtwhalen at gi.alaska.edu.
Melissa Hart, public pelations assistant, Geophysical Institute, at
(907) 474-7853 or via e-mail at
melissa.hart at gi.alaska.edu .

Note to editors: Photos are available upon request.

Contact newsroom at uaf.edu for more information.
Received on Mon 22 Jan 2007 03:27:21 PM PST