Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : 38 pages
Rapport
The Chicxulub impact crater, México, is unique. It is the only known terrestrial impact structure that has been directly linked to a mass extinction event and the only terrestrial impact with a global ejecta layer. Of the three largest impact structures on Earth, Chicxulub is the best preserved. Chicxulub is also the only known terrestrial impact structure with an intact, unequivocal topographic peak ring. Chicxulub’s role in the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction and its exceptional state of preservation make it an important natural laboratory for the study of both large impact crater formation on Earth and other planets and the effects of large impacts on the Earth’s environment and ecology. Our understanding of the impact process is far from complete, and despite more than 30 years of intense debate, we are still striving to answer the question as to why this impact was so catastrophic.During International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 364, Paleogene sediments and lithologies that make up the Chicxulub peak ring were cored to investigate (1) the nature and formational mechanism of peak rings, (2) how rocks are weakened during large impacts, (3) the nature and extent of post-impact hydrothermal circulation, (4) the deep biosphere and habitability of the peak ring, and (5) the recovery of life in a sterile zone. Other key targets included sampling the transition through a rare midlatitude section that might include Eocene and Paleocene hyperthermals and/or the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM); the composition and character of the impact breccias, melt rocks, and peak-ring rocks; the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Paleocene–Eocene Chicxulub impact basin infill; the chronology of the peak-ring rocks; and any observations from the core that may help us constrain the volume of dust and climatically active gases released into the stratosphere by this impact. Petrophysical property measurements on the core and wireline logs acquired during Expedition 364 will be used to calibrate geophysical models, including seismic reflection and potential field data, and the integration of all the data will calibrate impact crater models for crater formation and environmental effects. The proposed drilling directly contributes to IODP Science Plan goals:Climate and Ocean Change: How resilient is the ocean to chemical perturbations? The Chicxulub impact represents an external forcing event that caused a 75% level mass extinction. The impact basin may also record key hyperthermals within the Paleogene.Biosphere Frontiers: What are the origin, composition, and global significance of subseafloor communities? What are the limits of life in the subseafloor? How sensitive are ecosystems and biodiversity to environmental change? Impact craters can create habitats for subsurface life, and Chicxulub may provide information on potential habitats for life, including extremophiles, on the early Earth and other planetary bodies. Paleontological and geochemical studies at ground zero will document how large impacts affect ecosystems and effects on biodiversity.Earth Connections/Earth in Motion: What are the composition, structure and dynamics of Earth’s upper mantle? What mechanisms control the occurrence of destructive earthquakes, landslides, and tsunami? Mantle uplift in response to impacts provides insight into dynamics that differ between Earth and other rocky planets. Impacts generate earthquakes, landslides, and tsunami, and scales that generally exceed plate tectonic processes yield insight into effects, the geologic record, and potential hazards.IODP Expedition 364 was a Mission Specific Platform expedition to obtain subseabed samples and downhole logging measurements from the sedimentary cover sequence and peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater. A single borehole was drilled into the Chicxulub impact crater on the Yucatán continental shelf, recovering core from 505.7 to 1334.73 m below seafloor with ~99% core recovery and acquiring downhole logs for the entire depth.
International Ocean Discovery Program

hal-01639520
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01639520
DOI : 10.14379/iodp.pr.364.2017

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Association for the Advancement of Science
Résumé : 6 pages
International audience
Large impacts provide a mechanism for resurfacing planets through mixing near-surface rocks with deeper material. Central peaks are formed from the dynamic uplift of rocks during crater formation. As crater size increases, central peaks transition to peak rings. Without samples, debate surrounds the mechanics of peak-ring formation and their depth of origin. Chicxulub is the only known impact structure on Earth with an unequivocal peak ring, but it is buried and only accessible through drilling. Expedition 364 sampled the Chicxulub peak ring, which we found was formed from uplifted, fractured, shocked, felsic basement rocks. The peak-ring rocks are cross-cut by dikes and shear zones and have an unusually low density and seismic velocity. Large impacts therefore generate vertical fluxes and increase porosity in planetary crust.
ISSN: 0036-8075

hal-01399386
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01399386
PUBMED : 27856906
DOI : 10.1126/science.aah6561

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : 9 pages
International audience
Potentially hazardous asteroids and comets have hit Earth throughout its history, with catastrophic consequences in the case of the Chicxulub impact. Here we reexamine one of the mechanisms that allow an impact to have a global effect—the release of climate-active gases from sedimentary rocks. We use the SOVA hydrocode and model ejected materials for a sufficient time after impact to quantify the volume of gases that reach high enough altitudes (> 25 km) to have global consequences. We vary impact angle, sediment thickness and porosity, water depth, and shock pressure for devolatilization and present the results in a dimensionless form so that the released gases can be estimated for any impact into a sedimentary target. Using new constraints on the Chicxulub impact angle and target composition, we estimate that 325 ± 130 Gt of sulfur and 425 ± 160 Gt CO2 were ejected and produced severe changes to the global climate.
ISSN: 0094-8276

hal-01639659
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01639659
DOI : 10.1002/2017GL074879

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society of London
Résumé : Permo-Triassic rift basins offer important hydrocarbon targets along the Atlantic margins. Their fill is dominated by continental red beds, comprising braided fluvial, alluvial fan, aeolian, floodplain and lacustrine facies. These relatively lightly explored basins span both the Atlantic and Tethyan domains and developed above a complex basement with inherited structural fabrics. Sparse data in offshore regions constrain understanding of depositional geometries and sedimentary architecture, further impeded by their deep burial beneath younger strata, combined with the effects of later deformation during continental breakup. This paper provides results from a multidisciplinary analysis of basins along the Atlantic margin. Regional seismic and well data, combined with geochemical provenance analysis from the European North Atlantic margins, are integrated with detailed outcrop studies in Morocco and Nova Scotia. The research provides new insights into regional basin tectonostratigraphic evolution, sediment fill, and reservoir distribution, architecture and quality at a range of scales. Regional seismic profiles, supported by key well data, indicate the presence of post-orogenic collapse basins, focused narrow rifts and low-magnitude multiple extensional depocentres. Significantly, Permo-Triassic basin geometries are different and more varied than the overlying Jurassic and younger basins. Provenance analysis using Pb isotopic composition of detrital K-feldspar yields new and robust controls on the sediment dispersal patterns of Triassic sandstones in the NE Atlantic margin. The evolving sedimentary architecture is characterized by detailed sedimentological studies of key outcrops of age equivalent Permian-Triassic rifts in Morocco and Nova Scotia. The interplay of tectonics and climate is observed to influence sedimentation, which has significant implications for reservoir distribution in analogue basins. New digital outcrop techniques are providing improved reservoir models, and identification of key marker horizons and sequence boundaries offers a potential subsurface correlation tool. Future work will address source and seal distribution within the potentially petroliferous basins.
Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conf

hal-00590618
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00590618

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Recent studies have shown that accounting for intraspecific trait variation (ITV) may better address major questions in community ecology. However, a general picture of the relative extent of ITV compared to interspecific trait variation in plant communities is still missing. Here, weconducted a meta-analysis of the relative extent of ITV within and among plant communities worldwide, using a data set encompassing 629 communities (plots) and 36 functional traits. Overall, ITV accounted for 25% of the total trait variation within communities and 32% of the totaltrait variation among communities on average. The relative extent of ITV tended to be greater for whole-plant (e.g. plant height) vs. organ-level traits and for leaf chemical (e.g. leaf N and P concentration) vs. leaf morphological (e.g. leaf area and thickness) traits. The relative amount of ITV decreased with increasing species richness and spatial extent, but did not vary with plant growth form or climate. These results highlight global patterns in the relative importance of ITV in plant communities, providing practical guidelines for when researchers should include ITV in trait-based community and ecosystem studies.
Ecology Letters

hal-01237101
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01237101
DOI : 10.1111/ele.12508
PUBMED : 26415616

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Résumé : International audience
ISSN: 0018-9499

hal-01632372
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01632372
DOI : 10.1109/TNS.2010.2089063