¹Morgan F. Schaller, ¹Megan K. Fung, ²James D. Wright, ¹Miriam E. Katz, ^2,3Dennis V. Kent
Science 354, 225-229 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf5466]
¹Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY 12180, USA.
²Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
³Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
Reprinted with permission from AAAS

Extraterrestrial impacts have left a substantial imprint on the climate and evolutionary history of Earth. A rapid carbon cycle perturbation and global warming event about 56 million years ago at the Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) boundary (the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) was accompanied by rapid expansions of mammals and terrestrial plants and extinctions of deep-sea benthic organisms. Here, we report the discovery of silicate glass spherules in a discrete stratigraphic layer from three marine P-E boundary sections on the Atlantic margin. Distinct characteristics identify the spherules as microtektites and microkrystites, indicating that an extraterrestrial impact occurred during the carbon isotope excursion at the P-E boundary.