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An extraterrestrial impact in the early Danian: A secondary K/T boundary event?

Journal article published in 1998 by E. A. M. Koutsoukos ORCID
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

High-resolution lithostratigraphic and foraminiferal studies of a section spanning the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at Poty, Pernambuco, in north-eastern Brazil, indicate a possible extraterrestrial bolide impact in the earliest Danian, approximately at the boundary between the Pα and P1a foraminiferal zones (~ 100,000-200,000 years after the K/T transition), in southern Atlantic low-latitude regions. Tsunami deposits have been related to the Chicxulub impact structure in Mexico and dating of a similar deposit at Poty suggests a slightly later event here. Hypothetically, the presence of Danian fauna in older sediments could have been caused by multiple re-working events of unconsolidated Chicxulub distal impact ejecta or bioturbation. However, identical microfossil distributions occur in other sampled sections, thereby excluding that possibility. It is possible that there were multiple cometary impacts during a few hundred thousand years around the K/T transition.