a 3.3 Ma impact in Argentina and possible consequences

PETER H. SCHULTZ; MARCELO ZÁRATE; WILLIAM HAMES; CECILIA CAMILIÓN; JOHN KING

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Lugar: New York; Año: 1998 vol. 282 p. 2061 - 2063

0036-8075

Enigmatic glassy materials (escorias) and red bricklike materials (tierras cocidas) occur at a restricted stratigraphic level (the top of the Chapadmalal Formation). Materials from one locality near Mar del Plata are attributed to a mid-Pliocene impact event with a radiometric and magnetostratigraphic age of 3.3 million years ago (Ma). An extinction of endemic fauna (including the glyptodonts and flightless cariamid birds) correlates with the unit containing the impact glasses. Moreover, the age of the glasses is coincident within dating uncertainties with a pulselike change in the oxygen isotope marine record in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans just before the late Pliocene deterioration of the climate.