Brownbag Talks
One
Rock to Change the World: The Story of the Chicxulub Impact Crater
Sean Gulick
UTIG Research Scientist, PH.D.
SEMINAR OVERIEW:
Sixty-five million years ago a meteor traveling with a velocity of about 20
kilometers per second impacted the Earth near the location of today’s Yucatán Peninsula with the energy equivalent to
that of 200 million atomic bombs. The collision resulted in devastation
on a planet-wide scale, changed the course of evolution, and left behind what
is today known as the Chicxulub impact crater. The crater, now buried
under a kilometer-thick section of Cenozoic sediments, represents the only
preserved large impact structure in the solar system currently accessible to
us. Along with an international team of scientists, Dr. Gulick has been
investigating this crater with geophysical methods—seismic, gravity, and
magnetics—to understand the role of the impacted rock in the final crater
structure, to use the final structure to gain insight into impact cratering
processes, and to determine the key characteristics of the impact that
contributed to the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous.
The next stage of investigation is now underway—with the goal of drilling
deep into the crater in a joint program with the Integrated Ocean Drilling
Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program
(ICDP).
Dr. Gulick sailed on ODP Leg 196 as a Logging Specialist has served on
several IODP advisory panels.
The above information is also available from the U.S.Science Support Program
(USSSP) Distinguished Lecturer Series:
http://www.usssp-iodp.org/Education/DLS/2007_2008.html