Synimpact-postimpact transition inside Chesapeake Bay crater
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Abstract
The transition from synimpact to postimpact sedimentation inside Chesapeake Bay impact crater began with accumulation of fallout debris, the final synimpact deposit. Evi dence of a synimpact fallout layer at this site comes from the presence of unusual, millimeter- scale, pyrite microstructures at the top of the Exmore crater-fill breccia. The porous geometry of the pyrite microstructures indicates that they originally were part of a more extensive pyrite lattice that encompassed a layer of millimeter-scale glass microspherules—fallout melt particles produced by the bolide impact. Above this microspherule layer is the initial postimpact deposit, a laminated clay-silt-sand unit, 19 cm thick. This laminated unit is a dead zone, which contains abundant stratigraphically mixed and diagenetically altered or impact-altered microfossils (foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellates, ostracodes), but no evidence of indigenous biota. By extrapolation of sediment- accumulation rates, I estimate that conditions unfavorable to microbiota persisted for as little as <1 k.y. to 10 k.y. after the bolide impact. Subsequently, an abrupt improvement of the late Eocene paleoenvironment allowed species-rich assemblages of foraminifera, ostracodes, dinoflagellates, radiolarians, and calcareous nannoplankton to quickly reoccupy the crater basin, as documented in the first sample of the Chickahominy Formation above the dead zone.
Study Area
Publication type | Article |
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Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Title | Synimpact-postimpact transition inside Chesapeake Bay crater |
Series title | Geology |
DOI | 10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0995:SPTICB>2.0.CO;2 |
Volume | 30 |
Issue | 11 |
Year Published | 2002 |
Language | English |
Publisher | Geological Society of America |
Contributing office(s) | Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center |
Description | 4 p. |
First page | 995 |
Last page | 998 |
Country | United States |
Other Geospatial | Chesapeake Bay |
Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |