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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

Current status of the impact theory for the terminal Cretaceous extinction

An iridium abundance anomaly at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (C/T) boundary has been disclosed at 36 sites throughout the globe. The impact of a large extraterrestrial object is now widely accepted as the best explanation of this anomaly. Au/Ir and Pt/Ir ratios from two C/T boundary clays indicate a type I carbonaceous chondrite composition for the impacting object, for which a sea floor impact with subsequent subduction has been calculated to have a 20 percent probability. The extinction's 'killing mechanism' has not yet been established, but both temperature changes and darkness due to atmospheric dust are probable contributors. In view of the rapid dispersal of dust in ballistic trajectories, the rapid settling of heavy, coagulated dust particles, the effects of darkness on phytoplankton, and plant records, it is suggested that darkness would have lasted a few months, rather than the originally hypothesized few years.

Alvarez, W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Low earth orbit environmental effects on osmium and related optical thin-film coatings

A number of samples of optical thin film materials were flown on Shuttle flight STS-8 as part of an experiment to evaluate their interaction with residual atomic oxygen in low earth orbit. Osmium was selected because of its usefulness as a reflective optical coating for far-UV instruments and for confirmation of results from previous Shuttle flights in which such coatings disappeared. Reflectance data and photographic evidence are presented to support the hypothesis that the osmium disappearance is due to reaction with oxygen to form a volatile oxide. Platinum and iridium, which were included for comparison, fared much better.

Gull, T. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Oxidation Behavior of Glassy Alloys

The oxidation behavior of high temperature glassy alloys produced by rapid solidification processing is investigated and the effects of processing and composition on oxidation behavior is studied. Glassy Ta-44.5at%Ir, Ta-40at%Ir-10at%B and Nb-45at%Ir oxidized rapidly at 700 to 800 C at an oxygen partial pressure of .001 atm. The alloys were embrittled during the oxidation process. No apparent oxidation or embrittlement of the Ta-Ir alloy occurred after oxidation for 4h at 500 C at an oxygen partial pressure of .001 atm. Embrittlement occurred, however, after 100h of exposure under the latter conditions. Alloy embrittlement is associated with the partial or full conversion of the metallic glass to a mixture of crystalline beta-Ta2O5 and metallic iridium. Hot compaction of glassy alloys of this type must be limited to relatively low temperatures (approx. 500 C) and short times at the low temperatures unless extremely low oxygen partial pressures can be achieved during the compaction process.

Yurek, G.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Geochemical anomalies, bolide impacts and biological extinctions on the Earth

Geochemical and mineralogical techniques are used to search for evidence of extraterrestrial impacts associated with mass and lesser biological extinction peaks in the geological record. Studies of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary serve as a baseline for evaluating geochemical data from the extinction horizones. Other studies were generally concentrated on rock strata corresponding to the periodic extinction peaks noted by Raup and Sepkoski. A significant iridium anomaly in late Eocene marine sediments associated with extinctions of radiolaria in low latitudes and attributed to an extraterrestrial source is widely distributed in 8 to 9 sites around the world.

Asaro, F.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Mass extinction caused by large bolide impacts

A history and development status assessment is presented for the hypothesis that the great extinction of living species 65 million years ago, at the boundary between the Tertiary and Cretaceous geological ages, was due to the collision of a meteoroid, asteroid, or comet with the earth. The initial, deeply suggestive indication of the extraterrestial origin of the extinction-initiating mechanism was the detection of an exceptionally high concentration of iridium at the stratigraphic position of the extinction. Detailed computer modeling of the atmospheric effect of such a bolide impact has shown that the earth would have first grown intensely cold during a period of darkness due to particulate debris clouds in the upper atmosphere, followed by an enormous increase in global temperatures as the debris cleared, created by the persistence of greenhouse-effect gases; this heating would have been especially lethal to numerous forms of life.

Alvarez, Luis W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Partial analysis of experiment LDEF A-0114

Due to delays in manifesting the return of the Long Duration Exposure Facility from space, attention was concentrated on extracting the maximum information from the EIOM-2 (oxygen interaction with materials experiment) flown on STS-8 in September 1983. An analysis was made of the optical surfaces exposed during that flight and an assessment made of the effect of the 5 eV atomic oxygen upon their physical and chemical properties. The surfaces studied were of two types: high-purity thin films sputtered or evaporated onto 2.54-cm diam lambda/20 fused silica optical flats, and highly polished bulk samples. Rapid etching of carbon and carbonaceous surfaces was observed with polycarbonate CR-39 showing the largest etch of any substrate flown and measured. Of the metals tested, only osmium and silver showed large effects, the former being heavily etched and the later forming a very thick layer of oxide. The first measurable effects on iridium, aluminum, nickel, tungsten and niobium thin films are reported.

Gregory, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Implications of asteroid composition for the geochemistry of the ancient terrestrial projectile flux

The discovery of enhanced siderophile abundances at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary has provoked many searches for geochemical signatures which could reveal other catastrophic impacts in Earth's history. These searches implicitly assume that most large impactors are of chondritic, iron, or stony-iron composition, with a greatly enhanced abundance of siderophile elements. Impactors composed of asteroidal crust or mantle rocks analogous to the achondritic meteorites would not leave a distinct geochemical trace since their siderophile abundances are grossly similar to those of the Earth's crust. In recent years studies of the mineralogical composition of the current asteroid belt have suggested that the composition of impacting projectiles may be highly variable with both projectile size and time. In particular it seems possible that in the distant past projectiles derived from asteroid mantle material may have caused a large fraction of the cratering events on Earth. Such impacts would be missed by any geochemical search relying on iridium or any other siderophile element. The questions of the effect of size and time variations on projectile composition and the significance of hidden impacts missing in current geochemical searches are examined.

Bell, Jeffrey F.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Deccan volcanism at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary

The accuracy with which one can claim that Deccan trap volcanism occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB) over a very short time interval is of key importance in deciding whether a volcanic origin of the KTB events should be taken seriously. In the two years since paleomagnetic, paleontological and geodynamic evidence was published, further data have become available and the case now appears to be well constrained. The Ar-40/Ar-39 results from six labs have yielded some 24 reliable plateau ages that narrow the age range to 65 to 69 Ma. Moreover, it appears that a significant part of this range results from inter-lab spread and possible minor alteration. Paleontology demonstrates that volcanism started in the Maestrichtian, more precisely in the A. mayaroensis zone. Paleomagnetism shows that volcanism spanned only 3 chrons and only one correlation remains possible, that of the main central reversed chron with 29R. Therefore, whereas Ar-40/Ar-39 is able only to restrict the duration of volcanism to some 4 Ma, paleomagnetism restricts it to 0.5 Ma. Using some geochemical indicators such as C-13 as proxy, it is suggested that volcanism actually consists of a few shorter events of unequal magnitude. Extrusion rates may be as high as 100 cu km/yr and fissure lengths as long as several 100 km. Such a scenario appears to be at least as successful as others in accounting for most anomalies observed at the KTB. Particularly important are Iridium and other platinum group elements (PGE) profiles, Sr-87/Sr-86, C-13, 0-18, other exotic geochemical signatures, spherules, soot, shocked minerals, selective and stepwise extinctions. The environmental impact of CO2 possibly released during explosive phases of volcanism, and SO2 released during effusive phases, and the ability of volcanism to ensure worldwide distribution of KTB products are now all addressed. In conclusion, the case for a causal link between internal hotspot activity, birth of the Reunion hotspot itself as the Deccan and KTB events appears to rest on an increasingly stronger basis.

Courtillot, V.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Rocks, resolution, and the record at the terrestrial K/T boundary, eastern Montana and western North Dakota

Reconstructions of mass extinction events are based upon faunal patterns, reconstructed from numerical and diversity data ultimately derived from rocks. It follows that geological complexity must not be subsumed in the desire to establish patterns. This is exemplified at the Terrestrial Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary in eastern Montana and western North Dakota, where there are represented all of the major indicators of the terrestrial K/T transition: dinosaurian and non-dinosaurian vertebrate faunas, pollen, a megaflora, iridium, and shocked quartz. It is the patterns of these indicators that shape ideas about the terrestrial K/T transition. In eastern Montana and western North Dakota, the K/T transition is represented lithostratigraphically by the Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, and the Tertiary Tullock Formation. Both of these are the result of aggrading, meandering, fluvial systems, a fact that has important consequences for interpretations of fossils they contain. Direct consequences of the fluvial depositional environments are: facies are lenticular, interfingering, and laterally discontinuous; the occurrence of fossils in the Hell Creek and Tullock formations is facies-dependent; and the K/T sequence in eastern Montana and western North Dakota is incomplete, as indicated by repetitive erosional contacts and soil successions. The significance for faunal patterns of lenticular facies, facies-dependent preservation, and incompleteness is discussed. A project attempting to reconstruct vertebrate evolution in a reproducible manner in Hell Creek-type sediments must be based upon a reliable scale of correlations, given the lenticular nature of the deposits, and a recognition of the fact that disparate facies are not comparable in terms of either numbers of preserved vertebrates or depositional rates.

Fastovsky, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The impact of mass extinctions

In the years since Snowbird an explosive growth of research on the patterns, causes, and consequences of extinction was seen. The fossil record of extinction is better known, stratigraphic sections were scrutinized in great detail, and additional markers of environmental change were discovered in the rock record. However flawed, the fossil record is the only record that exists of natural extinction. Compilations from the primary literature contain a faint periodic signal: the extinctions of the past 250 my may be regulary spaced. The reality of the periodicity remains a subject for debate. The implications of periodicity are so profound that the debate is sure to continue. The greater precision from stratigraphic sections spanning extinction events has yet to resolve controversies concerning the rates at which extinctions occurred. Some sections seem to record sudden terminations, while others suggest gradual or steplike environmental deterioration. Unfortunately, the manner in which the strata record extinctions and compile stratigraphic ranges makes a strictly literal reading of the fossil record inadvisable. Much progress was made in the study of mass extinctions. The issues are more sharply defined but they are not fully resolved. Scenarios should look back to the phenomena they purport to explain - not just an iridium-rich layer, but the complex fabric of a mass extinction.

Flessa, Karl W.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The end-triassic mass extinction event

The end-Triassic is the least studied of the five major episodes of mass extinction recognized in the Phanerozoic, and the Triassic-Jurassic boundary is not precisely defined in most parts of the world, with a paucity of good marine sections and an insufficiency of biostratigraphically valuable fossils. Despite these limitations it is clear that there was a significant episode of mass extinction, affecting many groups, in the Late Norian and the existing facts are consistent with it having taken place at the very end of the period. The best record globally comes from marine strata. There was an almost complete turnover of ammonites across the T-J boundary, with perhaps no more than one genus surviving. About half the bivalve genera and most of the species went extinct, as did many archaeogastropods. Many Paleozoic-dominant brachiopods also disappeared, as did the last of the conodonts. There was a major collapse and disappearance of the Alpine calcareous sponge. Among terrestrial biota, a significant extinction event involving tetrapods was recognized. With regard to possible environmental events that may be postulated to account for the extinctions, there is no evidence of any significant global change of climate at this time. The existence of the large Manicouagan crater in Quebec, dated as about late or end-Triassic, has led to the suggestion that an impact event might be implicated, but so far despite intensive search no unequivocal iridium anomaly or shocked quartz was discovered. On the other hand there is strong evidence for significant marine regression in many parts of the world. It is proposed therefore that the likeliest cause of the marine extinctions is severe reduction in habitat area caused either by regression of epicontinental seas, subsequent widespread anoxia during the succeeding transgression, or a combination of the two.

Hallam, A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The Manson impact structure, a possible site for a Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary impact

The Manson impact structure, about 35 km in diameter, is the largest impact crater recognized in the United States. Its center is located near the town of Manson, 29 km west of Fort Dodge, Iowa. The structure is not well known geologically because it is covered by tens of meters of glacial deposits. What is known about the structure was learned mostly from the study of water well cuttings. At Manson the normal Phanerozoic and Proterozoic sedimentary rocks were replaced by centrally uplifted Proterozoic crystalline rocks that are representative of the normal basement: This central uplift is surrounded by completely disrupted rocks which are roughly encircled by peripherally faulted and slumped sequences of normal sedimentary strata. Radially outward normal sedimentary strata are uplifted slightly. Manson, once interpreted as a cryptovolcanic structure, is now considered an impact structure based on its circular shape, its central uplift and the presence of multiple intersecting sets of shock lamellae in quartz grains from the central uplift. The Ar-40/Ar-39 age spectrum dating results for a microcline separate from the Manson 2-A core in the central uplift is shown. This spectrum is interpreted to indicate a nearly complete degassing of the microcline at the time of the Manson impact. The remainder of the gas released climbs in age with increasing temperature of release. This pattern of the age spectrum is interpreted to represent diffusional loss due to reheating at the time of the impact and during subsequent cooling. Shocked quartz grains, present in the iridium-bearing layer at the K-T boundary throughout the world, have a significantly larger size and are more abundant in the western interior of North America than elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, shocked feldspar and granitic fragments are found at the K-T boundary in North America. These observations indicate the K-T boundary impact must have penetrated continental crust in North America.

Hartung, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Selective extinction of marine plankton at the end of the Mesozoic era: The fossil and stable isotope record

Floral, faunal and stable isotope evidence in a continuous sequence of latest Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary shallow water marine deposits in the Mangyshlak Peninsula, USSR suggest severe environmental changes at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary. Time frame is provided by nanno, micro and macrofossils as well as by magnetic stratigraphy and an iridium spike. Oxygen isotopic analyses of the bulk sediments, composed of nanno and microplankton skeletal remains, show a sharp positive spike at the K/T boundary. This shift is primarily attributed to severe cooling possibly accompanied by increased salinities of the surface mixed layer. Floral and faunal extinctions were selective, affecting approximately 90 percent of the warm water calcareous phyto and zooplankton genera in the Tethyan-Paratethyan regions. These highly diverse taxa with many endemic representatives were at the peak of their evolutionary development. Geologic evidence indicates that the terminal Cretaceous temperature decline was coeval with widespread and intense volcanic activity which reached a peak at the close of the Mesozoic Era. Increased acidity temporarily prohibited calcite nucleation of the surface dwelling warm-water plankton. Superimposed upon decreased alkalinity, severe and rapid climatic changes caused the extinction of calcareous phyto and zooplankton.

Herman, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Mass mortality and extraterrestrial impacts

The discovery of iridium enrichment at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary resulted in formulation of hypothesis of a cometary or asteroid impact as the cause of the biological extinctions at this boundary. Subsequent discoveries of geochemical anomalies at major stratigraphic boundaries like the Precambrian/Cambrian, Permian/Triassic, Middle/Late Jurassic, resulted in the application of similar extraterrestrial impact theories to explain biological changes at these boundaries. Until recently the major physical evidence, as is the location of the impact crater site, to test the impact induced biological extinction was lacking. The diameter of such a crater would be in the range of 60 to 100 km. The recent discovery of the first impact crater in the ocean provide the first opportunity to test the above theory. The crater, named Montagnais and located on the outer shelf off Nova Scotia, Canada, has a minimum diameter of 42 km, with some evidence to a diameter of more than 60 km. At the Montagnais impact site, micropaleontological analysis of the uppermost 80 m of the fall-back breccia represented by a mixture of pre-impact sediments and basement rocks which fills the crater and of the basal 50 m of post-impact marine sediments which overly the impact deposits, revealed presence of diversified foraminiferal and nannoplankton assemblages. The sediments which are intercalated within the uppermost part of the fall-back breccia, had to be deposited before the meteorite impact. The post-impact deposits were laid down almost immediately after the impact as also supported by the micropaleontological data. In conclusion, micropaleontological studies of sediments from the first submarine impact crater site identified in the ocean did not reveal any mass extinction or significant biological changes at the impact site or in the proximal deep ocean basin.

Jansa, L. F.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Flood basalts and mass extinctions

There appears to be a correlation between the times of flood basalts and mass-extinction events. There is a correlation of flood basalts and hotspot tracks--flood basalts appear to mark the beginning of a new hotspot. Perhaps there is an initial instability in the mantle that bursts forth as a flood basalt but then becomes a steady trickle that persists for many tens of millions of years. Suppose that flood basalts and not impacts cause the environmental changes that lead to mass-extinctions. This is a very testable hypothesis: it predicts that the ages of the flows should agree exactly with the times of extinctions. The Deccan and K-T ages agree with this hypothesis; An iridium anomaly at extinction boundaries apparently can be explained by a scaled-up eruption of the Hawaiian type; the occurrence of shocked-quartz is more of a problem. However if the flood basalts are all well dated and their ages indeed agree with extinction times, then surely some mechanism to appropriately produce shocked-quartz will be found.

Morgan, W. Jason↗
NASA NTRS1988

Cretaceous-Tertiary findings, paradigms and problems

The asteroid hypothesis has stimulated numerous studies of the paleontological record at Cretaceous/Tertiary time as well as of geological indicators of environmental crisis preserved in the rock record. Both extinctions and geological anomalies often occur at times that do not appear to be synchronous or instantaneous. The record includes paleontological indicators of dinosaurs, terrestrial flora, marine planktonic organisms, and shallow water marine macrofauna and geological phenomena include occurrences of iridium and other platinum metals, trace elements, clay mineralogy, shocked minerals, soot, microspherules, and isotopes of osmium, strontium and carbon. These findings are reviewed in the context of the alternate hypotheses of an exogenic cause, involving either a single asteroid impact or multiple commentary impacts, and an endogenic cause, involving intense global volcanism and major sea level regression.

Officer, C. B.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Ellipsometric method for the measurement of temperature and optical constants of incandescent transition metals

The development of a unique noncontact temperature measurement device utilizing rotating analyzer ellipsometry is described. The technique circumvents the necessity of spectral emissivity estimation by direct measurement concomitant with radiance brightness. Simultaneous determinations of dielectric constants and refractive indices allow changes in the physical and chemical state of a heated surface to be monitored. The results of optical property measurements at 633 nm as functions of temperature between 1000 and 2500 K for eight transition metals including Hf, Ir, Mo, Nb, Pd, Pt, Ta, and V are presented together with preliminary results of oxidation studies on iridium.

Hansen, George P.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Geological and geochemical record of 3400-million-year-old terrestrial meteorite impacts

Beds of sand-sized spherules in the 3400-million-year-old Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone belt, South Africa, formed by the fall of quenched liquid silicate droplets into a range of shallow- to deep-water depositional environments. The regional extent of the layers, their compositional complexity, and lack of included volcanic debris suggest that they are not products of volcanic activity. The layers are greatly enriched in iridium and other platinum group elements in roughly chondritic proportions. Geochemical modeling based on immobile element abundances suggests that the original average spherule composition can be approximated by a mixture of fractionated tholeiitic basalt, komatiite, and CI carbonaceous chondrite. The spherules are thought to be the products of large meteorite impacts on the Archean earth.

Lowe, Donald R.↗