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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
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Abstract
K/T Boundary Deposits in the Paleo-western Caribbean Basin
Ryuji Tada,1 Manuel A. Iturralde-Vinent,2 Takafumi Matsui,3 Eiichi Tajika,1 Tatsuo Oji,1 Kazuhisa Goto,1 Yoichiro Nakano,1 Hideo Takayama,1 Shinji Yamamoto,1 Shoichi Kiyokawa,1 Kazuhiro Toyoda,4 Dora Garca-Delgado,5 Consuelo Daz-Otero,5 Reinaldo Rojas-Consuegra2
1Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
2Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Havana, Cuba
3Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
4Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
5Instituto de Geologia y Paleontologia, Havana, Cuba
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was made possible thanks to an agreement between the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the University of Tokyo, and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Agencia del Medio Ambiente) and the Instituto de Geologa y Paleontologa del Ministerio de Industria Bsica de Cuba. We wish to thank especially the important support provided to field research in Cuba by Mitsui Co., Ltd., as well as the company's manager in Havana, A. Nakata. We also thank T. J. Bralower, R. T. Buffler, and A. Pszczlkowski for their critical reviews of the manuscript. The survey was supported by research funds donated to the University of Tokyo by NEC Corp., I. Ohkawa, and M. Iizuka.
ABSTRACT
A thick, calcareous, clastic megabed of late Maastrichtian age has been known for sometime in western and central Cuba. This megabed was formed in association with the bolide impact at Chicxulub, Yucatn, at the K/T boundary, and is composed of a lower gravity-flow unit and an upper homogenite unit. The lower gravity-flow unit is dominantly composed of calcirudite that was formed because of collapses of the Yucatn, Cuban, and Bahamian platform margins and subsequent accumulation in the lower slope to basin margin environment. The gravity flow probably was triggered by a seismic wave induced by the impact, although a ballistic flow may have triggered collapse in the case of proximal sites (Yucatn margin). The upper homogenite unit is composed of massive and normally graded calcarenite to calcilutite that was formed as a result of large tsunamis associated with the impact and deposited in wider areas in the deeper part of Paleo-western Caribbean basin. Slight grain-size oscillations in this unit probably reflect the influence of repeated tsunamis. The large tsunamis were generated either by the movement of water into and out of the crater cavity or by the large-scale slope failure on the eastern margin of the Yucatn platform. In upper slope to shelf environments, gravity-flow deposits and homogenite are absent, and a thin sandstone complex influenced by repeating tsunami waves was deposited.
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