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Impact winter and the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions: Results of a Chicxulub asteroid impact model

Pope, Kevin O., Baines, Kevin H., Ocampo, Adriana C., Ivanov, Boris A.·1994·Earth and Planetary Science Letters
DOI 10.1016/0012-821x(94)90186-4
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Abstract

The Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico is the site of the impact purported to have caused mass extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary. 2-D hydrocode modeling of the impact, coupled with studies of the impact site geology, indicate that between 0.4 and 7.0 x 10(17) g of sulfur were vaporized by the impact into anhydrite target rocks. A small portion of the sulfur was released as SO3 or SO4, which converted rapidly into H2SO4 aerosol and fell as acid rain. A radiative transfer model, coupled with a model of coagulation indicates that the aerosol prolonged the initial blackout period caused by impact dust only if the aerosol contained impurities. A larger portion of sulfur was released as SO2, which converted to aerosol slowly, due to the rate-limiting oxidation of SO2. Our radiative transfer calculations, combined with rates of acid production, coagulation, and diffusion indicate that solar transmission was reduced to 10-20% of normal for a period of 8-13 yr. This reduction produced a climate forcing (cooling) of -300 Wm-2, which far exceeded the +8 Wm-2 greenhouse warming, caused by the CO2 released through the vaporization of carbonates, and therefore produced a decade of freezing and near-freezing temperatures. Several decades of moderate warming followed the decade of severe cooling due to the long residence time of CO2. The prolonged impact winter may have been a major cause of the K/T extinctions.

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Research works printed but not linked: 30

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Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Pope, K. O., Baines, K. H., Ocampo, A. C., & Ivanov, B. A.
Venue
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1994-12
Volume
128
Issue
3-4
Pages
719-725
ISSN
0012-821X
DOI
10.1016/0012-821x(94)90186-4
Cited by
145
References
0
Language
en
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Impact winter and the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions: Results of a Chicxulub asteroid impact model. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/0012-821x(94)90186-4
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Pope, K. O., Baines, K. H., Ocampo, A. C., & Ivanov, B. A. (1994). Impact winter and the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions: Results of a Chicxulub asteroid impact model. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821x(94)90186-4