A possible tsunami deposit at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil
Abstract
Interdisciplinarry and integrated investigations of a stratigraphic succession spanning the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary in Pernambuco (the Poty Quarry section, near Recife), northeastern Brazil, provides direct evidence for the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial bolide impact event. Discussions on the exact position of the K-T boundary point to an impact event in the earliest Danian. One particular bed at the base of the Maria Farinha Formation shows sedimentary characteristics and exotic (probably impact-derived) material which suggest the action of a tsunami wave. The distribution of iridium concentrations throughout the studied succession records a major peak of iridium (up to 69 times the background levels) at about 15-20 cm above the main tsunami bed.
- Publication:
-
Sedimentary Geology
- Pub Date:
- July 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0037-0738(95)00128-X
- Bibcode:
- 1996SedG..104..189A