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 1 March 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5253, pp. 1263 - 1266
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5253.1263
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Impact Origin of the Chesapeake Bay Structure and the Source of the North American Tektites

Christian Koeberl, * C. Wylie Poag, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Dion Brandt

Seismic profiles, drill core samples, and gravity data suggest that a complex impact crater sim 35.5 million years old and 90 kilometers in diameter is buried beneath the lower Chesapeake Bay. The breccia that fills the structure contains evidence of shock metamorphism, including impact melt breccias and multiple sets of planar deformation features (shock lamellae) in quartz and feldspar. The age of the crater and the composition of some breccia clasts are consistent with the Chesapeake Bay impact structure being the source of the North American tektites.

C. Koeberl, Institute of Geochemistry, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
C. W. Poag, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
W. U. Reimold and D. Brandt, Department of Geology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Press-pulse: a general theory of mass extinction?.
N. C. Arens and I. D. West (2008)
Paleobiology 34, 456-471
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Deep Drilling into the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure.
G. S. Gohn, C. Koeberl, K. G. Miller, W. U. Reimold, J. V. Browning, C. S. Cockell, J. W. Horton Jr., T. Kenkmann, A. A. Kulpecz, D. S. Powars, et al. (2008)
Science 320, 1740-1745
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Origin and emplacement of impactites in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA.
J. W. Horton Jr., G. S. Gohn, D. S. Powars, and L. E. Edwards (2007)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 437, 73-97
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
How big was the Chesapeake Bay impact? Insight from numerical modeling.
G. S. Collins and K. Wunnemann (2005)
Geology 33, 925-928
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
New surveys of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure suggest melt pockets and target-structure effect.
A. K. Shah, J. Brozena, P. Vogt, D. Daniels, and J. Plescia (2005)
Geology 33, 417-420
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Upper Eocene impact horizon in east-central Georgia.
R. S. Harris, M. F. Roden, P. A. Schroeder, S. M. Holland, M. S. Duncan, and E. F. Albin (2004)
Geology 32, 717-720
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Synimpact-postimpact transition inside Chesapeake Bay crater.
C. W. Poag (2002)
Geology 30, 995-998
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Reidite: An impact-produced high-pressure polymorph of zircon found in marine sediments.
B. P. Glass, S. Liu, and P. B. Leavens (2002)
American Mineralogist 87, 562-565
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Discovery of high-pressure ZrSiO4 polymorph in naturally occurring shock-metamorphosed zircons.
B.P. Glass and S. Liu (2001)
Geology 29, 371-373
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Global cooling accelerated by early late Eocene impacts?.
H. B. Vonhof, J. Smit, H. Brinkhuis, A. Montanari, and A. J. Nederbragt (2000)
Geology 28, 687-690
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Geochemical Evidence for a Comet Shower in the Late Eocene.
K. A. Farley, A. Montanari, E. M. Shoemaker, and C. S. Shoemaker (1998)
Science 280, 1250-1253
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Extraterrestrial impacts on earth: the evidence and the consequences.
R. A. F. Grieve (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 140, 105-131
   Abstract »    PDF »
Identification of meteoritic components in impactites.
C. Koeberl (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 140, 133-153
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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