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Science 29 March 1991:
Vol. 251. no. 5001, pp. 1594 - 1597
DOI: 10.1126/science.251.5001.1594
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Articles

Microtektites, Microkrystites, and Spinels from a Late Pliocene Asteroid Impact in the Southern Ocean

STANLEY V. MARGOLIS 1, PHILIPPE CLAEYS 1, and FRANK T. KYTE 2

1 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
2 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024

The properties of glassy spherules found in sedimentary deposits of a late Pliocene asteroid impact into the southeast Pacific are similar to those of both microtektites and microkrystites. These spherules probably formed from molten silicate droplets that condensed from an impact-generate vapor cloud. The spherules contain inclusions of magnesioferrite spinels similar to those in spherules found at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, indicating that both sets of spherules are impact debris formed under similar physical and chemical conditions.

Submitted on October 30, 1990
Accepted on January 31, 1991


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
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The history of tektites.
G. J. H. McCall (2006)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 256, 471-493
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New evidence for a large Palaeoproterozoic impact: spherules in a dolomite layer in the Ketilidian orogen, South Greenland.
B. Chadwick, B. CHADWICK, P. CLAEYS, and B. SIMONSON (2001)
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Have distal impact ejecta changed through geologic time?.
B. M. Simonson and P. Harnik (2000)
Geology 28, 975-978
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