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Life and Death by Impact: Drilling for Clues
Prof. Sean Gulick, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
The most recent of Earth’s five largest mass extinction events occurred 66 Ma, coeval with the impact of a ~12 km asteroid, striking at ~60 degrees into what is today the Yucatán Peninsula, México, producing the ~200 km-wide Chicxulub crater. This impact, by some estimations, drove the extinction of 75% of life on Earth at the genus level including all non-avian dinosaurs. Proposed kill mechanisms include thermal effects, dust, soot, and sulfate aerosols reducing Earth’s solar insolation. In 2016, 835 m of core was recovered from the Chicxulub impact structure through International Ocean Discovery Program-International scientific Continental Drilling Program Expedition 364. Analyses done on these cores, downhole logs, and geophysical site survey data have led to a series of advancements to our understanding of impact cratering processes, how the Chicxulub impact affected the Earth’s environment leading to the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, and what ecosystems existed within the newly formed crater. Key areas of discovery include: 1) clear evidence for origin of peak rings and crater dynamics in large impacts, 2) highest resolution record to date of impact processes within the crater include deposition of impactites and role of ocean resurge, 3) rapid recovery of life at ground zero with a key niche being filled by cyanobacteria, and 4) development of a long lived hydrothermal system with astrobiological implications.
BIO :
Dr. Sean Gulick, his students, postdocs and colleagues use geophysical techniques ground truth by scientific drilling to understand Earth and planetary processes. Current projects range from tectonic and climate interactions in glaciated continental margins from Antarctica to Greenland to Alaska, geohazards and margin evolution of in Alaska, New Zealand, and Haiti, the geologic processes and environmental effects of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Chicxulub meteor impact, and investigations of the impact basins on the Lunar South Pole. He has sailed on over 30 research cruises using geophysical data and scientific ocean drilling to test hypotheses ranging from how subduction zones initiate, to roles of sediment flux in glaciated margins, to incised river valleys as preservers of sea level history and sand resources, to impact cratering processes and links to life. He is a Research Professor at the Institute for Geophysics and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Co-Chair of the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability at the University of Texas at Austin.
Sean lives on a small ranch in Sunset Valley Texas with his wife, Dr. Jennifer Jobst, and their horses, dogs, and cats. He competes in medieval jousting tournaments and conducts medieval research as a hobby.
