Chicxulub crater
Cráter de Chicxulub
- Date
- 1978 / 1991 · confidence high
- Place
- Chicxulub, Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
- Credited to
- Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo (Pemex, 1978-81); Alan Hildebrand (1991)
- People
- 👤 Alan R. Hildebrand1955–👤 Glen Penfield
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Pemex geophysicists detected a circular gravimetric anomaly 180 km across buried under Yucatán; in 1991 Hildebrand identified it as the impact crater of the K-Pg boundary, with shocked quartz and tektites. It confirmed the Alvarez hypothesis.
Coordinates of the crater's centre, next to the port of Chicxulub. Pemex's data remained confidential for a decade. The contribution of the Deccan Traps to the event remains debated.
What it led to
- Consensus on impact as the main cause of the dinosaur extinction
- Drilling of the peak ring (IODP 364, 2016)
- Study of the Yucatán cenotes as a footprint of the crater
Built on
- Iridium layer (Alvarez)
- Haiti and Beloc tektites
Made possible
- Gravimetric survey applied to craters
- Impact and climate models