Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater
The Chicxulub crater was formed by an asteroid impact at ca. 66 Ma. The impact is considered to have contributed to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and reduced productivity in the world’s oceans due to a transient cessation of photosynthesis. Here, biomarker profiles extracted from crater core ma...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Geological Society of America
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125272 |
| _version_ | 1826216876207767552 |
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| author | Schaefer, Bettina Grice, Kliti Coolen, Marco J.L. Summons, Roger E Cui, Xingqian Bauersachs, Thorsten Schwark, Lorenz Böttcher, Michael E. Bralower, Timothy J. Lyons, Shelby L. Freeman, Katherine H. Cockell, Charles S. Gulick, Sean P.S. Morgan, Joanna V. Whalen, Michael T. Lowery, Christopher M. Vajda, Vivi |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Schaefer, Bettina Grice, Kliti Coolen, Marco J.L. Summons, Roger E Cui, Xingqian Bauersachs, Thorsten Schwark, Lorenz Böttcher, Michael E. Bralower, Timothy J. Lyons, Shelby L. Freeman, Katherine H. Cockell, Charles S. Gulick, Sean P.S. Morgan, Joanna V. Whalen, Michael T. Lowery, Christopher M. Vajda, Vivi |
| author_sort | Schaefer, Bettina |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The Chicxulub crater was formed by an asteroid impact at ca. 66 Ma. The impact is considered to have contributed to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and reduced productivity in the world’s oceans due to a transient cessation of photosynthesis. Here, biomarker profiles extracted from crater core material reveal exceptional insights into the post-impact upheaval and rapid recovery of microbial life. In the immediate hours to days after the impact, ocean resurge flooded the crater and a subsequent tsunami delivered debris from the surrounding carbonate ramp. Deposited material, including biomarkers diagnostic for land plants, cyanobacteria, and photosynthetic sulfur bacteria, appears to have been mobilized by wave energy from coastal microbial mats. As that energy subsided, days to months later, blooms of unicellular cyanobacteria were fueled by terrigenous nutrients. Approximately 200 k.y. later, the nutrient supply waned and the basin returned to oligotrophic conditions, as evident from N2-fixing cyanobacteria biomarkers. At 1 m.y. after impact, the abundance of photosynthetic sulfur bacteria supported the development of water-column photic zone euxinia within the crater. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:54:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125272 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:54:32Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Geological Society of America |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1252722022-09-29T22:22:40Z Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater Schaefer, Bettina Grice, Kliti Coolen, Marco J.L. Summons, Roger E Cui, Xingqian Bauersachs, Thorsten Schwark, Lorenz Böttcher, Michael E. Bralower, Timothy J. Lyons, Shelby L. Freeman, Katherine H. Cockell, Charles S. Gulick, Sean P.S. Morgan, Joanna V. Whalen, Michael T. Lowery, Christopher M. Vajda, Vivi Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences The Chicxulub crater was formed by an asteroid impact at ca. 66 Ma. The impact is considered to have contributed to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and reduced productivity in the world’s oceans due to a transient cessation of photosynthesis. Here, biomarker profiles extracted from crater core material reveal exceptional insights into the post-impact upheaval and rapid recovery of microbial life. In the immediate hours to days after the impact, ocean resurge flooded the crater and a subsequent tsunami delivered debris from the surrounding carbonate ramp. Deposited material, including biomarkers diagnostic for land plants, cyanobacteria, and photosynthetic sulfur bacteria, appears to have been mobilized by wave energy from coastal microbial mats. As that energy subsided, days to months later, blooms of unicellular cyanobacteria were fueled by terrigenous nutrients. Approximately 200 k.y. later, the nutrient supply waned and the basin returned to oligotrophic conditions, as evident from N2-fixing cyanobacteria biomarkers. At 1 m.y. after impact, the abundance of photosynthetic sulfur bacteria supported the development of water-column photic zone euxinia within the crater. 2020-05-15T17:39:01Z 2020-05-15T17:39:01Z 2020-01 2019-11 2020-05-07T17:08:07Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0091-7613 1943-2682 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125272 Schaefer, Bettina et al. "Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater." Geology 48, 4 (January 2020): 328–332 © 2020 The Authors en http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/g46799.1 Geology Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Geological Society of America Geological Society of America |
| spellingShingle | Schaefer, Bettina Grice, Kliti Coolen, Marco J.L. Summons, Roger E Cui, Xingqian Bauersachs, Thorsten Schwark, Lorenz Böttcher, Michael E. Bralower, Timothy J. Lyons, Shelby L. Freeman, Katherine H. Cockell, Charles S. Gulick, Sean P.S. Morgan, Joanna V. Whalen, Michael T. Lowery, Christopher M. Vajda, Vivi Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title | Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title_full | Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title_fullStr | Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title_full_unstemmed | Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title_short | Microbial life in the nascent Chicxulub crater |
| title_sort | microbial life in the nascent chicxulub crater |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125272 |
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