Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 612 bolide event: New evidence of a late Eocene impact-wave deposit and a possible impact site, US east coast

Geology
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

A remarkable >60-m-thick, upward-fining, polymictic, marine boulder bed is distributed over >15 000 km2 beneath Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain and inner continental shelf. The wide varieties of clast lithologies and microfossil assemblages were derived from at least seven known Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene stratigraphic units. The supporting pebbly matrix contains variably mixed assemblages of microfossils along with trace quantities of impact ejecta. The youngest microfossils in the boulder bed are of early-late Eocene age. On the basis of its unusual characteristics and its stratigraphic equivalent to a layer of impact ejecta at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 612. It is postulated that this boulder bed was formed by a powerful bolide-generated wave train that scoured the ancient inner shelf and coastal plain of southeastern Virginia. 

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 612 bolide event: New evidence of a late Eocene impact-wave deposit and a possible impact site, US east coast
Series title Geology
DOI 10.1130/0091-7613(1992)020<0771:DSDPSB>2.3.CO;2
Volume 20
Issue 9
Year Published 1992
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description 4 p.
First page 771
Last page 774
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details