Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Birger Schmitz, Yue Cai, Shiyong Liao, Victoriano Pujalte, Ting Ruan, Robert P. Speijer, Ellen Thomas
Format: Artículo Open Access
Published: Wiley 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.70082
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Table of Contents:
  • Search for impact ejecta at the Paleocene–Eocene boundary Birger Schmitz Yue Cai Shiyong Liao Victoriano Pujalte Ting Ruan Robert P. Speijer Ellen Thomas Meteoritics & Planetary Science Abstract Almost 10 years have passed since microtektites and microkrystites were reported for the Paleocene–Eocene (P–E) boundary in drill cores and outcrop in New Jersey and in ODP Hole 1051B in the western North Atlantic. The glassy spherules were interpreted to reflect an impact trigger for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Since then, many detailed studies of sediment strata across the P–E boundary worldwide have been performed, but so far, no additional reports of impact spherules have been published. Negative results usually are not published, but here we report a lack of success in finding such spherules at the P–E boundary in ODP Hole 1051B. We searched 90 g of sediment from the same interval in the same core from which 56 impact spherules >63 μm were previously reported from 35 g of sediment, but did not find microtektites or microkrystites. We also did not find impact spherules in a detailed search of 2.3 kg of sediment from the P–E boundary in the Zumaia section (Spain), where the boundary is marked by a minor iridium anomaly. In addition, we did not find such spherules in P–E boundary sediment from sections in Europe and the Middle East nor in drill cores from the southern Atlantic. We urge the research community to report further both negative and positive results on this issue in order to elucidate the envisioned P–E boundary impact event. 10.1111/maps.70082 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/