Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Izett, G. A..
Data from several deep coreholes, seismic reflection surveys, and surface mapping indicate that the buried Chesapeake Bay impact structure is wider (160 km, due to 35-km-wide outer fracture zone) and deeper (2 miles) than previously reported. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
The magnetic properties of black Beloc glass have been measured. The Curie constant, the magnetization, and the magnetic susceptibility of the Beloc glass fall within the known ranges observed for tektites. However, the temperature-independent component of the magnetic susceptibility is slightly higher than that found for tektites. Moreover, it is not possible to match the experimental magnetic data for the Beloc glass with the calculated values using the previously reported Fe(3+)/Fe(2+) ratio of 0.7. The oxidation state of Fe was therefore redetermined by Mossbauer measurements, and the Fe(3+)/Fe(2+) ratio was found to be 0.024 plus or minus 0.015. Using the redetermined value of the ratio, the magnetic parameters were again calculated using formulas that are applicable to tektites, and good agreement was found between the calculated and experimental values. The experimental magnetic measurements and the redetermined Fe(3+)/Fe(2+) ratio of the Beloc glass specimens are essentially the same as those found for tektite glass.
Petrologic studies of the core recovered from holes drilled in the Manson, Iowa, buried impact structure may unravel the thermal history of the crater-fill debris. We made a cursory examination of about 200 m of core recovered from the M-1 bore hole. The M-1 bore hole was the first of 12 holes drilled as part of a cooperative drilling program between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Iowa Geological Survey Bureau. The M-1 core hole is about 6 km northeast of the center of the impact structure, apparently on the flank of its central peak. We developed a working hypothesis that a 30-m-thick breccia unit within a 53-m-thick unit previously termed the 'crystalline clast breccia with glassy matrix' is part of a discontinuous melt sheet in the crater-fill impact debris. The 30-m-thick breccia unit reached temperatures sufficient to partially melt some small breccia clasts and convert the fine-grained breccia matrix into a silicate melt that cooled to a greenish-black, flinty, microcrystalline rock. The results of the investigation of this unit are presented.
U-Pb isotopic systematics from analyses of single zircons identify at least two provenance ages, approximately 575 Ma and approximately 330 Ma, for zircons from the impact layer of the K-T boundary, Raton Basin, Colorado. These data are a preliminary confirmation of results reported from the same layer. The zircon provenance ages provide a unique signature for identification of the source crater since igneous rocks of these ages (or sedimentary rocks derived from them) must characterize part of the impact stratigraphy.
An isotopic study was carried out to characterize the type of black tektites from the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary on Haiti (the first reasonably well-preserved impact-derived material recovered from the K-T boundary), in order to help characterize the tektite source material (i.e., the type of rocks that were melted and ejected during the impact event(s) at around 64.5 Ma). Results show that the isotopic data and all of the element concentration data obtained are consistent with an andesitic-dacitic composition for the tektites and their source material. The Nd isotopic data suggest that the source rocks were not older than Silurian (T(chur) = 400 Ma) in age, and were composed largely of young (less than 1080 Ma) crustal material. Of the suspected K-T boundary impact sites, both the Manson (Iowa) and Chicxulub (Yucatan) structures occur in suitable lithologies to yield the Haitian black tektites.
A critical set of observations bearing on the K/T boundary events were obtained from several dozen sites in western North America. Thin strata at and adjacent to the K/T boundary are locally preserved in association with coal beds at these sites. The strata were laid down in local shallow basins that were either intermittently flooded or occupied by very shallow ponds. Detailed examination of the stratigraphy at numerous sites led to the recognition of two distinct strata at the boundary. From the time that the two strata were first recognized, E.M. Shoemaker has maintained that they record two impact events. We report some of the evidence that supports this conclusion.
At 20 sites in the Raton Basin of Colorado and New Mexico, and at several other sites in Wyoming, Montana, and Canada, a pair of claystone units, an Ir abundance anomaly, and a concentration of shock-metamorphosed minerals mark the palynological K-T boundary. The K-T boundary claystone, which is composed of kaolinite and small amounts of illite/smectite mixed-layer clay, is similar in most respects to kaolinite tonstein layers in coal beds. At some, but not all, K-T boundary localities, the boundary claystone contains solid kaolinite and hollow and solid goyazite spherules, 0.05 to 1.2 mm in diameter. The upper unit, the K-T boundary impact layer, consists chiefly of kaolinite and various amounts of illite/smectite mixed-layer clay. The impact layer and boundary claystone are similar chemically, except that the former has slightly more Fe, K, Ba, Cr, Cu, Li, V, and Zn than the latter. The facts that the boundary claystone and impact layer contain anomalous amounts of Ir, comprise a stratigraphic couplet at Western North American sites, and form thin, discrete layers, similar to air-fall units (volcanic or impact), suggest that the claystone units are of impact origin. Significantly, the impact layer contains as much as 2 percent clastic mineral grains, about 30 percent of which contain multiple sets of shock lamellae. Only one such concentration of shocked minerals has been found near the K-T boundary. The type of K-T boundary shock-metamorphosed materials (quartzite and metaquartzite) in the impact layer and the lack of shock lamellae in quartz and feldspar of pumice lapilli and granitic xenoliths in air-fall pumice units of silicic tuffs, such as the Bishop Tuff, eliminate the possibility that the shock-metamorphosed minerals in the K-T impact layer are of volcanic origin. The global size distribution and abundance of shock-metamorphosed mineral grains suggest that the K-T impact occurred in North America.