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Global fire at the Cretaceous– Tertiary boundary

Nature volume 334, pages665–669(1988)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 20 October 1988

Abstract

Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary clays from five sites in Europe and New Zealand are 102-104-fold enriched in elemental C (mainly soot), which is isotopically uniform and apparently comes from a single global fire. The soot layer coincides with the Ir layer, suggesting that the fire was triggered by meteorite impact and began before the ejecta had settled.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637-1433, USA

    Wendy S. Wolbach, Iain Gilmour & Edward Anders

  2. Physikalisches Institut der Universität, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Edward Anders

  3. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA

    Charles J. Orth

  4. Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Robert R. Brooks

Authors
  1. Wendy S. Wolbach
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  2. Iain Gilmour
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  3. Edward Anders
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  4. Charles J. Orth
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  5. Robert R. Brooks
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Wolbach, W., Gilmour, I., Anders, E. et al. Global fire at the Cretaceous– Tertiary boundary. Nature 334, 665–669 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334665a0

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