Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous

Abstract

We report on the effect of the end-Cretaceous impact event on the present-day deep microbial biosphere at the impact site. IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, México, allowing us to investigate the microbial communities within this structure. Increased cell biomass was found in the impact suevite, which was deposited within the first few hours of the Cenozoic, demonstrating that the impact produced a new lithological horizon that caused a long-term improvement in deep subsurface colonization potential.Charles S. Cockell, Bettina Schaefer, Cornelia Wuchter, Marco J. L. Coolen, Kliti Grice, Luzie Schnieders, Joanna V. Morgan, Sean P. S. Gulick, Axel Wittmann, Johanna Lofi, Gail L. Christeson, David A. Kring, Michael T. Whalen, Timothy J. Bralower, Gordon R. Osinski, Philippe Claeys, Pim Kaskes, Sietze J. de Graaff, Thomas Déhais, Steven Goderis, Natali Hernandez Becerra, Sophie Nixon and IODP-ICDP Expedition Scientist