TY - JOUR
T1 - A long-lived impact-generated hydrothermal system at the Chicxulub impact structure
AU - the Expedition 364 Scientists
AU - Pickersgill, Annemarie E.
AU - Christou, Evangelos
AU - Tremblay, Marissa M.
AU - Barfod, Dan N.
AU - Rasmussen, Cornelia
AU - Lee, Martin R.
AU - Schmieder, Martin
AU - Collins, Gareth S.
AU - Dymock, Ross
AU - Gulick, Sean P.S.
AU - Kring, David A.
AU - Morgan, Joanna V.
AU - Osinski, Gordon R.
AU - Swindle, Timothy
AU - Tikoo, Sonia M.
AU - Wittmann, Axel
AU - Zylberman, William
AU - Yamagachi, Kosei
AU - Whalen, Michael
AU - Fucugauchi, Jaime Urrutia
AU - Tomioka, Naotaka
AU - Smit, Jan
AU - Sato, Honami
AU - Riller, Ulrich
AU - Rebolledo-Vieyra, Mario
AU - Rae, Auriol S.P.
AU - Poelchau, Michael
AU - Perez-Cruz, Ligia
AU - Ocampo-Torres, Rubén
AU - Lowery, Chris
AU - Long, Xiao
AU - Jones, Heather
AU - Goto, Kazuhisa
AU - Gebhardt, Catalina
AU - Ferrière, Ludovic
AU - Coolen, Marco
AU - Cockell, Charles
AU - Claeys, Philippe
AU - Christeson, Gail
AU - Chenot, Elise
AU - Bralower, Timothy
AU - Mark, Darren F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026.
PY - 2026/12
Y1 - 2026/12
N2 - Hydrothermal systems likely played an essential role in the origin of life, both on Earth and potentially on other planets. They form anywhere that heat and aqueous fluids interact, including within cooling hypervelocity impact craters. Longer periods of hydrothermal activity will generate extended windows of opportunity for prebiotic chemical reactions to occur, life to develop, and micro-organisms to thrive and propagate beyond their point of origin. Here, we present radioisotopic age constraints and numerical simulations for the duration of post-impact hydrothermal activity in and around the peak ring of the ~200 km diameter 66 Ma Chicxulub impact structure. We find that hydrothermal activity persisted for at least 8 million years (Myr), which is approximately four times longer than previously estimated by numerical simulations, palaeomagnetic records, and petrographic interpretations at Chicxulub, making it the longest-lived impact generated hydrothermal system documented on Earth.
AB - Hydrothermal systems likely played an essential role in the origin of life, both on Earth and potentially on other planets. They form anywhere that heat and aqueous fluids interact, including within cooling hypervelocity impact craters. Longer periods of hydrothermal activity will generate extended windows of opportunity for prebiotic chemical reactions to occur, life to develop, and micro-organisms to thrive and propagate beyond their point of origin. Here, we present radioisotopic age constraints and numerical simulations for the duration of post-impact hydrothermal activity in and around the peak ring of the ~200 km diameter 66 Ma Chicxulub impact structure. We find that hydrothermal activity persisted for at least 8 million years (Myr), which is approximately four times longer than previously estimated by numerical simulations, palaeomagnetic records, and petrographic interpretations at Chicxulub, making it the longest-lived impact generated hydrothermal system documented on Earth.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105041607117
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105041607117#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-026-03618-5
DO - 10.1038/s43247-026-03618-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 42282941
AN - SCOPUS:105041607117
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 7
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 470
ER -