Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid ten kilometers across hit the Earth, melted 10,000 cubic kilometers of rock, sent a massive tsunami crashing through the oceans, a shockwave slamming across the lands, and a layer of iridium across the entire planet. This was a bad day for the planet and a really bad day for the life that lived on land. That day, was the day the dinosaurs by and large died, and the Chicxulub crater formed. 

Unfortunately, as our world is mostly covered in water, the asteroid struck in water and formed a crater that is largely obscured by the Gulf of Mexico and visually only reveals itself through unusual structures arcing across the Yucatan Peninsula. With other forms of measurement, such as sonar from boats and seismic and gravitational data, it becomes possible to trace out not just the underwater crater but also hidden structures. 

In a new paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, a team led by GL Christeson collected data from sensors with direct measurements using drilled-out samples. They were able to map in detail the crater’s central peak, the ring that formed around that center, and the inner rim of the structure. Of particular interest to researchers studying multiple planets was the discovery that while the ring around the crater’s central peak only has a few visible structures, the ring is a complete ring when the density of the crater floor is looked at. This implied that when we see incomplete rings on other worlds, they, like this crater, may simply be hiding their rings in the density profile of the ground.

We’ll be speaking with Dr. Christeson about this research on November 16, so please tune in then for more information.

More Information

Shining a Spotlight on the Chicxulub Impact Crater (Eos)

“Mapping the Chicxulub Impact Stratigraphy and Peak Ring Using Drilling and Seismic Data,” G. L. Christeson, J. V. Morgan, S. P. S. Gulick, 2021 August 3, JGR Planets