Chicxulub Crater

Chicxulub Crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatan peninsula, with its center located approximately underneath the town of Chicxulub, Yucatán, Mexico. Later investigations suggested that this impact structure is dated from the late Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago. The meteorite's estimated size is about 10 km (6 mi) in diameter, releasing an estimated 4.3×1023 joules of energy (equivalent to 191,793 gigatons of TNT) on impact.

References

• {{Journal reference issue | Author=Pope KO, Baines KH, Ocampo AC, Ivanov BA | Title=Energy, volatile production, and climatic effects of the Chicxulub Cretaceous/Tertiary impact | Journal=Journal of Geophysical Research | Volume=102 | Issue=E9 | Year=1997 | Pages=21645-64}} PMID 11541145
• {{Journal reference issue | Author=Pope KO, Ocampo AC, Kinsland GL, Smith R | Title=Surface expression of the Chicxulub crater | Journal=Geology | Volume=24 | Issue=6 | Year=1996 | Pages=527-30}} PMID 11539331
• {{Journal reference | Author=Sharpton VL, Marin LE | Title=The Cretaceous-Tertiary impact crater and the cosmic projectile that produced it | Journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences | Year=1997 | Volume=822 | Pages=353-80}} PMID 11543120