Project to Drill Into Mexico's Massive 'Dinosaur Crater' Gets Under Way Jonathan Amos - BBC News
go to original April 5, 2016

The Myrtle uses three legs to lift itself out of the water and make a steady platform. (D.Smith/ECORD/IODP)

A joint UK-US-led expedition has got under way to drill into the Chicxulub Crater off the coast of Mexico.

This is the deep scar made in the Earth's surface 66 million years ago by the asteroid that scientists believe hastened the end of the dinosaurs. Today, the key parts of the crater are buried beneath 600m of ocean sediment.

But if researchers can access its rocks, they should learn more about the scale of the impact, and the environmental catastrophe that ensued. They are particularly interested in a feature called the "peak ring". This was created at the center of the impact hole where the Earth rebounded after being hit by the city-sized object.
 

The outer rim (white arc) of the crater lies under the Yucatan Peninsula itself, but the inner peak ring is best accessed offshore. (NASA)

• An 18km-wide impactor punched a hole in the Earth's crust some 100km across and 30km deep

• This bowl then collapsed in on itself, leaving a crater about 200km across and a few km deep

• The central zone of the crater rebounded and collapsed again, leaving an inner "peak ring"

• Today, much of the Chicxulub Crater is buried offshore in the Gulf, under 600m of sediments

• On land, the crater is covered by limestone deposits, but its rim is traced by an arc of sinkholes

In geophysical surveys that can sense beneath the ocean bed, the ring looks like an arcing chain of mountains.

"We want to know where the rocks that make up this peak ring come from," explained Prof Joanna Morgan, the co-lead investigator from Imperial College London.

Read the rest at BBC News

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