The first day of the Cenozoic: Insights from the Chicxulub impact crater

given by Dr. Auriol Rae (Junior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences Trinity College, University of Cambridge)

Abstract:

66 Million years ago, a 14 km-diameter meteoroid struck the Earth at approximately 20 km/s. This event had a profound influence on the history of life on Earth – causing the extinction of around 75% of all species including all of the non-avian dinosaurs. This impact produced the 200 km-diameter Chicxulub Crater, located in present-day Mexico. This talk will look at the geological, climatological, and biological consequences of the end-Cretaceous impact, with particular insight from drilling of the crater in 2016 by the International Ocean Discovery Program. Furthermore, the wider significance of impact crater formation as a planetary geological process will be discussed.

View this talk in the Members’ Section.