Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 29 July 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5172, pp. 645 - 647
DOI: 10.1126/science.265.5172.645
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Fullerenes in the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Layer

Dieter Heymann 1, L. P. Felipe Chibante 2, Robert R. Brooks 3, Wendy S. Wolbach 4, and Richard E. Smalley 2

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA.
2 The Rice Quantum Institute and Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA.
3 Department of Soils Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
4 Department of Chemistry, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61702-2900, USA.

High-pressure liquid chromatography with ultraviolet-visible spectral analysis of toluene extracts of samples from two Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary sites in New Zealand has revealed the presence of C60 at concentrations of 0.1 to 0.2 parts per million of the associated soot. This technique verified also that fullerenes are produced in similar amounts in the soots of common flames under ambient atmospheric conditions. Therefore, the C60 in the K-T boundary layer may have originated in the extensive wildfires that were associated with the cataclysmic impact event that terminated the Mezozoic era about 65 million years ago.

Submitted on March 25, 1994
Accepted on June 2, 1994


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Testing for fullerenes in geologic materials: Oklo carbonaceous substances, Karelian shungites, Sudbury Black Tuff: Comment and Reply.
G. Parthasarathy and M. Vairamani (2003)
Geology 31, e32-e33
   Full Text »    PDF »
Testing for fullerenes in geologic materials: Oklo carbonaceous substances, Karelian shungites, Sudbury Black Tuff.
D. Mossman, G. Eigendorf, D. Tokaryk, F. Gauthier-Lafaye, K. D. Guckert, V. Melezhik, and C. E.G. Farrow (2003)
Geology 31, 255-258
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Testing for fullerenes in geologic materials: Oklo carbonaceous substances, Karelian shungites, Sudbury Black Tuff: Comment and Reply: COMMENT.
G. Parthasarathy and M. Vairamani (2003)
Geology 31, e32-e33
   Full Text »    PDF »
A Diamond Trilogy: Superplumes, Supercontinents, and Supernovae.
S. E. Haggerty (1999)
Science 285, 851-860
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Geochemistry of carbon in terrestrial impact processes.
I. Gilmour (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 140, 205-216
   Abstract »    PDF »
Origins of Fullerenes in Rocks.
T. W. Ebbesen, T. W. Ebbesen, H. Hiura, J. W. Hedenquist, C. E. J. de Ronde, A. Andersen, M. Often, and V. A. Melezhik (1995)
Science 268, 1634-1635
   PDF »
Response.
P. R. Buseck and S. Tsipursky (1995)
Science 268, 1635
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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