Near-K/T age of clastic deposits from Texas to Brazil: Impact, volcanism and/or sea-level lowstand?

Gerta Keller, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Near-K/T boundary clastic deposits from Texas, Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala and Brazil, often described as impact-generated tsunami deposits, are stratigraphically below well-defined K/T boundary horizons and appear not to be causally related to the K/T boundary event. Stratigraphic evidence indicates that their deposition began during the last 170-200 kyr of the Maastrichtian, coincident with a major eustatic sea-level lowstand that lowered sea level by as much as 70-100 m. Clastic deposition ended a few tens of thousands of years before the K/T boundary during a rapidly rising sea level. The presence of glass in clastic deposits in Haiti, northeastern Mexico and Yucatan suggests that the sea-level lowstand coincided with a time of major volcanism or pre-K/T boundary bolide impact.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)277-285
Number of pages9
JournalTerra Nova
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 1996

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Near-K/T age of clastic deposits from Texas to Brazil: Impact, volcanism and/or sea-level lowstand?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this