Geochemical evidence for combustion of hydrocarbons during the K-T impact event
- 17 March 2009
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 106 (11), 4112-4117
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0813117106
Abstract
It has been proposed that extensive wildfires occurred after the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) impact event. An abundance of soot and pyrosynthetic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pPAHs) in marine K-T boundary impact rocks (BIRs) have been considered support for this hypothesis. However, nonmarine K-T BIRs, from across North America, contain only rare occurrences of charcoal yet abundant noncharred plant remains. pPAHs and soot can be formed from a variety of sources, including partial combustion of vegetation and hydrocarbons whereby modern pPAH signatures are traceable to their source. We present results from multiple nonmarine K-T boundary sites from North America and reveal that the K-T BIRs have a pPAH signature consistent with the combustion of hydrocarbons and not living plant biomass, providing further evidence against K-T wildfires and compelling evidence that a significant volume of hydrocarbons was combusted during the K-T impact event.Keywords
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