Glass from the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in Haiti
Abstract
Tektite-like glasses preserved at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary at Beloc in Haiti provide clear evidence of an impact event. The glass composition suggests that the impact occurred on a continental shelf region, generating a silica-rich glass with chemical composition that reflects the melting of continental crustal rocks, and a calcium-rich glass produced by the fusion of marl sediments. These findings indicate that catastrophic release to the atmosphere of 1015 moles of C02 from vaporized marl occurred during the impact.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- February 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1038/349482a0
- Bibcode:
- 1991Natur.349..482S
- Keywords:
-
- Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary;
- Meteorite Collisions;
- Petrology;
- Silica Glass;
- Tektites;
- Calcium;
- Carbon Dioxide;
- Chondrites;
- Earth Crust;
- Haiti;
- Geophysics