We have performed several three-dimensional simulations of the meteor impact at Chicxulub, Mexico with the Continuous Adaptive Mesh Refinement code SAGE. This impact is widely believed to be associated with the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period and may have caused this extinction by a combination of widespread wildfires, high atmospheric opacity, atmospheric toxicity, and severe climate excursions. The worldwide distribution of shocked quartz, platinum-group elements, tektites, and soot in the K/T boundary layer can provide important diagnostics of the dynamics of the impact and the mechanisms of extinction. Studies of the excavation efficiencies among simulations at various angles of impact and projectile characteristics are useful in elucidating the relation between the impact event, the distributed evidence in the K/T boundary layer, and the extinction mechanism.
Galen Gisler (PGP/UiO, formerly LANL), Robert Weaver (LANL), Michael Gittings (SAIC)