Asteroid instead of vulcanic eruptions

Jan 17, 2020

Richard D. Norris with the drill core obtained on IODP expedition 342 showing the K-Pg boundary Photo: IODP

What triggered the latest of five mass extinction events - an asteroid impact or a series of volcanic eruptions? The scientific community has been dealing with this controversy for decades. A 36-strong team of researchers, led by Prof. Pincelli Hull from Yale University (USA) and PD Dr. André Bornemann from the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), has now examined deep-sea drill cores that represent the time period between Cretaceous and Palaeogene with particularly high resolution. They conclude that the volcanic eruptions occurred before the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and thus could not have been responsible for the mass extinction event 66 million years ago. The international team has now published their results in the journal Science.

From MARUM, Dr. Barbara Donner, Dr. Ursula Röhl and Dr. Thomas Westerhold are involved in the publication. They have contributed to this comprehensive investigation with special empirical data sets and initial evaluations.

Nannoplankton fossils next to a deep-sea sediment section drilled from the North Atlantic. Credit: Paul Bown, UCL

Original publication:

Pincelli M. Hull et. al.: On Impact and Volcanism across the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. Science 2020. DOI 10.1126/science.aay5055

Press release Yale University