Ruthenium isotopes show the Chicxulub impactor was a carbonaceous-type asteroid
- Author(s)
- Mario Fischer-Gödde, Jonas Tusch, Steven Goderis, Alessandro Bragagni, Tanja Mohr-Westheide, Nils Messling, Bo Magnus Elfers, Birger Schmitz, Wolf U. Reimold, Wolfgang D. Maier, Philippe Claeys, Christian Koeberl, François L.H. Tissot, Martin Bizzarro, Carsten Münker
- Abstract
An impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, occurred 66 million years ago, producing a global stratigraphic layer that marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene eras. That layer contains elevated concentrations of platinum-group elements, including ruthenium. We measured ruthenium isotopes in samples taken from three Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary sites, five other impacts that occurred between 36 million to 470 million years ago, and ancient 3.5-billion- to 3.2-billion-year-old impact spherule layers. Our data indicate that the Chicxulub impactor was a carbonaceous-type asteroid, which had formed beyond the orbit of Jupiter. The five other impact structures have isotopic signatures that are more consistent with siliceous-type asteroids, which formed closer to the Sun. The ancient spherule layer samples are consistent with impacts of carbonaceous-type asteroids during Earth's final stages of accretion.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Lithospheric Research
- External organisation(s)
- Universität zu Köln, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Florence, Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "Adriano Buzzati-Traverso", CNR, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin - Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH), Lund University, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Universidade de Brasília, Cardiff University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Copenhagen
- Journal
- Science
- Volume
- 385
- Pages
- 752-756
- No. of pages
- 5
- ISSN
- 0036-8075
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4868
- Publication date
- 08-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105105 Geochemistry
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7e6ab3dc-6b79-4258-bc70-63440535e4ca