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Science 1 July 1988:
Vol. 241. no. 4861, pp. 63 - 65
DOI: 10.1126/science.241.4861.63
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Articles

New Evidence on the Size and Possible Effects of a Late Pliocene Oceanic Asteroid Impact

FRANK T. KYTE 1, LEI ZHOU 1, and JOHN T. WASSON 1

1 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Debris from a late Pliocene asteroid impact is spread across at least 600 kilometers of the ocean floor in the southeast Pacific. On the basis of iridium concentrations in sediments from six deep-sea cores, the asteroid diameter was at least 0.5 kilometer; the impacting projectile may have been one of the largest in the last few million years. The stratigraphic age of this impact is the same as that inferred for the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation.

Submitted on February 16, 1988
Accepted on May 11, 1988


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Meteorite cratering: Hooke, Gilbert, Barringer and beyond.
G. J. H. McCall (2006)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 256, 443-469
   Abstract »    PDF »
Extraterrestrial impacts on earth: the evidence and the consequences.
R. A. F. Grieve (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 140, 105-131
   Abstract »    PDF »
Microtektites, Microkrystites, and Spinels from a Late Pliocene Asteroid Impact in the Southern Ocean.
S. V. Margolis, S. V. MARGOLIS, P. CLAEYS, and F. T. KYTE (1991)
Science 251, 1594-1597
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)