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The age of the Popigai impact event and its relation to events at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary

Nature volume 388, pages 365–368 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

Ages ranging from the Late Cretaceous (∼65 Myr) to the Oligocene (∼29 Myr) have been reported for the 100-km-diameter Popigai impact structure1,2 on the Anabar shield, central Siberia. These ages3,4,5,6,7,8 overlap the timing of several possible impact-related features, including the Cretaceous/Tertiary and Eocene/Oligocene stratigraphic boundaries, the North American tektites9, and the recently reported occurrences of an iridium anomaly and shocked quartz in Late Eocene deposits in northern Italy10. Here we report age determinations of several Popigai impact melt rocks using the 40Ar–39Ar step heating technique to constrain the age of the impact event. Our results are consistent with a Late Eocene impact age of 35.7± 0.2 Myr (2σ)—coincident in time with the impact deposits found in Italy. As this age is also similar to that of the North American tektites, which have been associated with the Chesapeake Bay impact structure in the eastern United States11,12,13, there seem to have been at least two large and essentially contemporaneous impacts during the Late Eocene.

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Figure 1: 40Ar–39Ar incremental heating spectra for holocrystalline (P9; a) and hypocrystalline (P21; b) impact melt rocks from Popigai.
Figure 2: 40Ar–39Ar incremental heating spectra for cryptocrystalline impact melt rocks from Popigai.
Figure 3: 40Ar–39Ar incremental heating spectra for glassy impact melt rocks from Popigai.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. B. Dalrymple, S. Kelley, M. Pilkington and M. Villeneuve for comments on earlier version of this Letter. This work was supported by an NSERC operating grant to D.Y.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. *Canadian Union College, College Heights, T4L 2E5, Alberta, Canada

    Richard Bottomley

  2. †Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, K1A 0Y3, Ontario, Canada

    Richard Grieve

  3. ‡Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 1E7, Ontario, Canada

    Derek York

  4. §Karpinsky Geological Institute, 199026, St Petersburg, Russia

    Victor Masaitis

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Correspondence to Richard Grieve.

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Bottomley, R., Grieve, R., York, D. et al. The age of the Popigai impact event and its relation to events at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Nature 388, 365–368 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41073

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