Abstract
The Chicxulub Crater experienced a somewhat backward discovery history. For most impact structures, the crater was found first, and then, the ejecta were identified. For Chicxulub, however, the ejecta were identified more than 10 years before the crater was found. The probable ejecta are the famous Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary layer that was first identified as the result of an extraterrestrial impact by the fact that it shows very high iridium abundance, this element and its close relatives being rare in terrestrial surface materials compared with meteorites.
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References
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Flamini, E., Coletta, A., Battagliere, M.L., Virelli, M. (2019). Chicxulub, Mexico. In: Flamini, E., Di Martino, M., Coletta, A. (eds) Encyclopedic Atlas of Terrestrial Impact Craters. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05451-9_131
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05451-9_131
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