Chicxulub crater

The Chicxulub crater is an <a href="/facts/Impact_crater/nWntooh4">impact crater</a> buried underneath the <a href="/facts/Yucat%25C3%25A1n_Peninsula/xGAcABhC">Yucatán Peninsula</a> in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of <a href="/facts/Chicxulub_Pueblo/tUqANIdJ">Chicxulub Pueblo</a> (not the larger coastal town of <a href="/facts/Chicxulub_Puerto/af0GJArv">Chicxulub Puerto</a>). It was formed slightly over 66 <a href="/facts/Million_years_ago/DXcnXuAw">million years ago</a> when an <a href="/facts/Asteroid/g7Ulr1VB">asteroid</a>, about ten kilometers (six miles) in diameter, struck <a href="/facts/Earth/HLLmDfj0">Earth</a>. The crater is estimated to be 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter and 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) in depth. It is believed to be <a href="/facts/List_of_impact_craters_on_Earth/XkH7hHFF">the second largest impact structure on Earth</a>, and the only one whose <a href="/facts/Peak_ring/8SChCJ45">peak ring</a> is intact and directly accessible for scientific research.
The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield, geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán Peninsula during the late 1970s. Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search. Later, through contact with <a href="/facts/Alan_R._Hildebrand/jvlczXB5">Alan R. Hildebrand</a> in 1990, Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature. Evidence for the crater's impact origin includes <a href="/facts/Shocked_quartz/wUfFUvuH">shocked quartz</a>, a <a href="/facts/Gravity_anomaly/FDCnSSfx">gravity anomaly</a>, and <a href="/facts/Tektite/XRpHJSdX">tektites</a> in surrounding areas.
The date of the impact coincides with the <a href="/facts/Cretaceous%25E2%2580%2593Paleogene_boundary/5056Agsq">Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary</a> (commonly known as the K–Pg or K–T boundary). It is now widely accepted that the devastation and <a href="/facts/Impact_winter/kJxHIe9S">climate disruption</a> resulting from the impact was the primary cause of the <a href="/facts/Cretaceous%25E2%2580%2593Paleogene_extinction_event/HNyDuEcx">Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event</a>, a <a href="/facts/Mass_extinction/HloJubtR">mass extinction</a> of 75% of plant and animal species on Earth, including all <a href="/facts/Dinosaur/JRdMqBnq">non-avian dinosaurs</a>.

Chicxulub crater open-in-new

Chicxulub crater