Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 104 (1993): 271-286

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

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Cometary impacts into ocean: their recognition and the threshold constraint for biological extinctions
Lubomir F. Jansa

Geological Survey of Canada, Atlantic Geoseience Centre, P.O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2 Y 4A2, Canada
(Received December 19, 1991; revised and accepted May 15, 1992)

ABSTRACT Jansa, L.F., 1993. Cometary impacts into ocean: their recognition and the threshold constraint for biological extinctions. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 104: 271-286. The Montagnais impact crater is presently the only site in the ocean where the effect of a meteorite fall on marine organisms has been studied. The impact crater is 45 km in diameter and was formed at 50.8 Ma by a fall of probably an old cometary nucleus 3.4 km in diameter, into shallow ( < 600 m) ocean. Comparison of the impact structure and related deposits with those on land shows several major differences of which the most significant is the absence of an elevated crater rim. Instead, the crater perimeter is bevelled and eroded as a consequence of impact induced bottom currents and turbulent, return water flow into the excavating cavity. By this process most of the fall-out breccia is reworked back into the crater cavity where it accumulates in much larger thicknesses than in impact craters on land. At a microscopic scale, the shock metamorphism features are about the same as those for land impacts. Geochemically, impacts of comet nucleii, may not leave a recognizable signature at the impact horizon except for a minor increase in iridium. Thus stratigraphic horizons associated with extinctions and/or major changes in biota have to be closely examined for other impact indicators, like the presence of tectites, glass spherules, and quartz grains with shock features. Occurrence of megatsunami wave deposits, extensive erosion on continental margins, margin failures and faunal mixing above erosional unconformities are other potential impact indicators. There is no single indicator that can provide sufficient proof of an impact event. Such interpretations have to be based on multiparameter studies of global extent, since many of the impact indicators are only of regional extent. The lack of extinction of any marine plankton genera, or of bottom dwellers at the Montagnais impact site allows us to place a lower limit for biological extinctions caused by cometary impacts on those with nucleus > 4 km in diameter. The calculated frequency for a cometary impact which could result in a 10% extinction of marine genera is about 6 10-v yr-i and for the K/T boundary type of extinctions about 2 10 -8 yr-1. Even allowing for a large degree of uncertainty in these estimates, it is unlikely that the biological extinction events for the last 250 Ma identified by Sepkoski (1990) could have been all caused by meteorite impacts.

Introduction
G e o l o g i c a l s t u d i e s d u r i n g t h e last d e c a d e h a v e led to t h e r e c o g n i t i o n o f e v e n t s in E a r t h h i s t o r y that are associated with distinct global changes, e i t h e r in b i o t a , s e d i m e n t c o m p o s i t i o n , b i o m a s s r e d u c t i o n , o r g e o c h e m i c a l c h a n g e s at specific stratig r a p h i c levels. T h e e v i d e n c e is n o w a c c u m u l a t i n g t h a t s o m e o f the r a r e g e o l o g i c e v e n t s o r i g i n a t e d from cometary or asteroidal I impacts, a theory a d v o c a t e d f o r l o n g t i m e b y M c L a r e n (1970). S o m e o f t h e s e e v e n t s w e r e d e b a t e d at the s e c o n d c o n f e r e n c e " G l o b a l C a t a s t r o p h e s in E a r t h H i s t o r y : A n 0031-0182/93/$06.00

interdisciplinary conference on impacts, volcanism a n d m a s s m o r t a l i t y " , h e l d at S n o w b i r d , U . S . A . in O c t o b e r 1988 ( S h a r p t o n a n d W a r d , 1990). T h e c o n f e r e n c e d e m o n s t r a t e d p e r s i s t i n g differences in views on causes of biological extinctions, ranging f r o m m e t e o r i t e i m p a c t t h e o r i e s to a v a r i e t y o f 1Asteroids are a multitude of "minor planets", precursors of which were planetisimals orbiting the Sun. The asteroid population includes old cometary nucleii, with depleted comet volatiles and solid core. Meteorites are fragments of planetary bodies, and have a broad range of chemical composition and mineralogy. However, traditionally, all extraterrestrial objects impacting Earth's atmosphere are called meteorites

1993 - - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

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climatic, tectonic and oceanographic processes. Thus the major task confronting the geologic community is to improve recognition of criteria for impact events and the ability to apply them in the geologic record. Geochemical studies of major stratigraphic boundary layers have shown the presence of horizons enriched in iridium and other platinum group elements, such as Os, Au, Pt and Ru (Orth et al., 1990; Wang and Chai, 1991; Xu and 5(an, 1991). The coincidence of such occurrences of enriched layers with major changes in biota have been explained by some researchers as an indication of meteorite collisions with the Earth. But, Orth et al. (1990) from analyses of more than 8000 samples from Phanerozoic geologic boundaries, concluded that except for the terminal Cretaceous, there is no compelling evidence for other impacts. Clearly, we have a paradox between paleotological and geochemical interpretation of stratigraphic horizons marked by biomass extinction. Some of the potential causes of biological extinctions were reviewed by McLaren and Goodfellow (1990). These authors concluded that nearly all major extinction events in the Phanerozoic are due to some form of ongoing stress which culminates in development of a biomass "killing horizon," explainable by an impact of an asteroid or a comet. But, to resolve whether an extraterrestrial body was the contributing factor in a biotic extinction requires clear and unbiased recognition of such an event in geologic record. With this goal we briefly discuss some of the most characteristic features of a cometary impact into the ocean, as interpreted from the Montagnais impact crater, located offshore Nova Scotia, eastern Canada (Jansa and PePiper, 1987). However, since the Montagnais impact crater was formed in an oceanic depth of less than 600 m, all the comparisons and conclusions presented here are valid only for impacts into a similar oceanic environment. The Montagnais impact is then used to point to some of the features which could be helpful for recognition of oceanic impacts. Oceanic impacts are emphasized because compilations of biological extinctions by Sepkoski (1990) point to the marine ecosystems being the most heavily affected. The lack of biological changes at the Montagnais struc-

ture as reported by Aubry et al. (1990) allows postulation of the lower threshold for the size of the cometary nucleus necessary to cause biological extinctions.

Oceanic meteorite impacts

Despite broad recognition of impacts of extraterrestrial objects on the Earth's land surface (Dence et al., 1977; Sharpton and Grieve, 1990) little attention has been devoted to studies of impacts into the ocean. This undoubtedly stems from the fact, that only two marine impact sites (Montagnais and Kara/Usta-kara) were studied in sufficient detail (Jansa and Pe-Piper, 1987; Koeberl et al., 1990). Only preliminary data are available from another shallow marine (?) impact-Chicxulub (Hildebrand et al., 1991). For several other impacts a shallow water environment have been postulated, but such conditions remain to be proven. The emphasis is placed here on oceanic impacts because: (1) probability arguments indicate that about 70% of the meteorite flux would land in the ocean; (2) the difference in the impact process and its environmental effects if water, or land area was the target; and (3) most of the major biological extinctions recorded in the Phanerozoic affected mainly marine animals. The general features and effects of a meteorite impact into the ocean were modelled by several authors specifically after publication of the impact theory by Alvarez et al. (1980). Some of these modelling results are summarized below and are compared with observed features at the Montagnais impact site. Considering the excavation processes, the most significant experiments for deep and shallow ocean impacts are those by Gault and Sonett (1982). For the shallow water with b < 1.5 (b=h/dm, where h is the mean water (ocean) depth and dm is the maximum depth of a transient cavity; for the deep water setting (b > 4), the above authors found that water is remarkably effective in shielding the floor against significant excavation. The central peak which is a prominent structural feature of complex craters for shallow ocean impact has a cylindrical shape and extends above the water surface. In the deep water setting it is a rounded cone-shape.

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Gault and Sonett (1982) further suggested that shallow-water impact structures would be much less obvious topographically in comparison to land impacts. Strelitz (1979), from modelling of an ocean impact reached a similar conclusion, but suggested that the penetration of the meteorite and hence depth of the burst would be about 50% greater in the ocean. Roddy et al. (1987) computed that the fall of a 10 km in diameter meteorite into 5 km deep ocean would result in formation of a larger rim uplift than in land impacts and that 70% of the ejecta would be finally resting within an area three times the crater diameter. The effect of energy transmission during the fall of a l0 km meteorite into 5 km deep ocean has been studied by O'Keefe and Ahrens (1982). These authors concluded that 5-15% of the energy is used up in passage of the meteorite through the atmosphere and the hydrosphere and that, upon impact, 10 to 100 times the meteorite mass of water and rock can be ejected into the stratosphere. Since the ejecta velocity for the Shocked extraterrestrial material in continental impacts is higher than in oceanic impacts, the fraction of extraterrestrial material should be lower in ocean impacts. McKinnon (1982) estimated kinetic energy transfer for a 10 km diameter meteorite impact to result in a 10.1 magnitude earthquake. When such a meteorite impacts an ocean, the seawater at the impact site could be heated up to 100,000C (Melosh, 1982). By such a process, much of the meteorite and a large volume of water would be converted into vapor and steam which would explode upward into the atmosphere above the impact site. The generated vapor plume may reach a diameter of 700 km. This plume would be about fifty times larger than the atmospheric thickness, and as consequence it would not only cause global distribution of meteoroid particles, but also result in their partial escape from Earth. Such mechanism of extraterrestrial particles dilution when considered together with the fact that half of the comet nucleus could be ice, indicate that a high velocity comet impact may not leave strong geochemical evidence at the Earth's surface. Even though such limitations were mentioned by Orth et al. (1990) in their geochemical analysis of extinction boundaries, these were not incorporated into their final

analysis of the origin of geochemically distinct geologic horizons. Not enough attention has been given to the effect of tsunami waves resulting from meteorite impact into the ocean. Some theoretical calculations have been provided by Strelitz (1979), Gault and Sonett (1982), Van der Bergh (1988) and Sonett et al. (1991). O'Keefe and Ahrens (1982) calculated a tsunami wave initially 5 km in height, from a 10 km in diameter meteorite impacting into 5 km of water, to decay in elevation to 150 m halfway around the world. Such a wave would propagate in the deep ocean at a maximum speed of 0.2 km/s and, according to the above authors, would inundate all low lying continental areas on Earth within 27 hours. This will be discussed in more detail further in the paper.
Shallow-ocean impact features as observed at the Montagnais crater

The Montagnais impact crater probably represents the most studied marine impact event. The crater was formed in an outer shelf/upper continental slope environment about 50.5 Ma ago (Jansa et al., 1989). The crater is nearly circular, at least 45 km wide, about 2.7 km deep and has a central uplift from 1250 m to 2900 m in height (Fig. 1). The central uplift has a flat-cone shape; it is 11.5 km wide, with the upper surface protruding slightly above the level of the crater rim. The crater is partially filled by polymictic breccia made up of the target rocks (Fig. 2A). The breccia layer is more than 550 m thick over the central uplift and encloses two horizons, 72 and 34 m thick, of recrystallized melt rock. The crater is covered by a 40.5 m thick layer of accretionary lapilli and vesicular glass bombs of melt rock which fell back into the crater (Fig. 2D). This layer corresponds to the suevite layer of St6ffler et al. (1977). The crystalline melt at the Montagnais impact site is enriched in iridium (up to 0.32 ppb) when compared to the low level in the target rocks (0.016 ppb, Jansa et al., 1989). No enrichment in other siderophile or platinum group elements has been detected (C. Orth, pers. commun., 1988), which led Jansa et al. (1990) to suggest that the impactor was most probably a comet nucleus. The 3.4 km

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Fig. 1. (A) Uninterpreted, 60 fold, time variant, scaled migration, reflection seismic section across the Montagnais impact crater, located at the edge of the Scotian Shelf, off eastern Canada (Petro-Canada seismic line 3203-82). (B) Interpreted seismic line as above; shown is the crater geometry, central uplift, breccia fill and location of melt rocks as verified by oil exploratory well Montagnais 1-94, drilled at the center of the central uplift. Note that the rim of the crater is bevelled (BR) and not raised as in land craters and that it lacks accumulation of a fall-out breccia, which was reworked into the final crater cavity.

diameter of the nucleus has been calculated from the equations given by Shoemaker and Wolfe (1982), using a 28.9 km s- 1 velocity and 0.6 g cm- 3 bulk density (Wiessman, 1990) and a crater diameter of 45 km. But, both the velocity and density parameters are poorly constrained due to insufficient knowledge of cometary bodies and thus the velocity may vary by a factor of 5 and the density by a factor of 7. This is reflected in calculations of craters similar in size to Montagnais by Shoemaker et al. (1990). The latter authors concluded that the impact of a long-period comet about 2.5 km in diameter at an impact speed of 57.7 km s- 1 and typical angle of impact 45 , will produce craters 40-50 km in diameter, if cometary densities are in the range of 0.5 to 1.2 g cm -3. Craters of this size are comparable with those produced by average S-type (stony-iron composition) asteroids of 3.4 to 4.6 km diameter) impacting at a speed of 17.9 km s-1. A different set of parameters was selected by

Vickery and Melosh (1990) who, for a comet with a nucleus 6.1 km in diameter, selected an impacting speed of 25km s -1 and 1.5 gcm -3 density to produce an impact crater 55 km in diameter; and for a nucleus of about 20 km in diameter a crater of about 185 km in diameter. The 3.4 km diameter for the nucleus of the Montagnais comet corresponds reasonably well to the above calculations, even when different sets of parameters are used. The fall-back breccia at the Montagnais impact site has all the diagnostic shock features, including planar shock lamellae in quartz and feldspars (Fig. 2B), variable stages of development of diaplectic glass and extensive microfracturing (Fig. 2A,C) and frequent occurrence of quartz and feldspar grains with highly decreased birefringence. Such features are revealed under cross polars in thin sections as darker, cloudy, areas (Fig. 2A,B). Locally, some of the ejecta clasts show complete transition from shocked mineral structure with

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Fig. 2. Photomicrographs of characteristic petrographic impact features from Montagnais structure (Montagnais 1-94 well samples). (A) Isotropization (i) of the minerals in metagraywacke clast of the impact breccia, and extensive microfracturing; 698 m, crossed polars, scale bar = 0.2 mm. (B) Magnified Fig. 2A to show undecorated shock lamellae (i) in quartz grains and partial isotropization of grains recognizable by their cloudy appearance; 698 m, crossed polars, scale bar=0.1 mm. (C) Partial isotropization of a large quartz grain (i), the grain is cut by a thin glassy vein (g) developed probably along a microfracture. Note other glassy veins crosscutting other grains of the graywacke clast; impact breccia, 689 m, crossed polars with gypsum plate, scale bar=0.2 mm. (D) Melt glass in the suevite zone. Thin section shows fresh glass (g) with rare needle-shaped, highly elongated microliths (m), vesicules (v), some rimmed by brownish rim of a chlorite and zeolite (z); black roundish aggregates consist of unidentified impurities mixed with iron oxide; 652 m, plane-polarized light, scale bar = 0.08 mm.

p r e s s u r e l a m e l l a e to p a r t i a l l y o r e v e n fully m e l t e d silicate g r a i n s w i t h i n a single b r e c c i a clast. T h e presence of a metastable polymorph of quartzcoesite is s u s p e c t e d f r o m p e t r o g r a p h i c studies, b u t h a s n o t b e e n verified yet.

Comparison of predicted and observed parameters for shallow-ocean impact

T h e M o n t a g n a i s c o m e t ' s fall i n t o s h a l l o w ( 2 0 0 - 6 0 0 m deep) o c e a n p r o d u c e d a n i m p a c t struc-

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ture which closely, but not completely resembles impact structures on land. The general geometry of the structure, such as its rounded bowl shape and heavily faulted flanks, is similar to that observed in land impact craters, and as predicted by shallow ocean impact modelling experiments. The central uplift is cylindrical in shape as predicted by Gault and Sonett (1982), however, the raised rim consisting partly of rock fragments ejected from the crater and partly of bedrock that has been lifted up and moved radially (as predicted from computations by McKinnon, 1982; Roddy et al., 1987; Strelitz, 1979; and Gault and Sonett, 1982) is lacking (Fig. l). In contrast, the Montagnais impact crater edge is eroded and bevelled. This is probably one of the most significant differences between subaerial and submarine impact crater morphologies. The lack of a raised rim at the Montagnais structure led some investigators to suggest a tectono-volcanic, or cryptovolcanic process for its origin (Edwards, 1989; Wade and MacLean, 1990). However, when the effect of water is considered in the cratering process, the lack of a raised rim is expected. As calculated by O'Keefe and Ahrens 0982) l0 to 100 times of the meteorite mass of water is ejected during the cratering process. During this process the water entering the excavated cavity rapidly evaporates because the temperature in the center of the cavity could reach temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius (Melosh, 1982). Combined with this process is the effect of water which was initially displaced by the shock wave and which than returns as a turbulent flow increasing the onrush of water into the excavating cavity and scouring the ocean floor in its wake. Therefore, not only will the fall-out breccia not come to rest at the crater perimeter, but the crater rim is further eroded by the inflowing water. Such a mechanism explains the greater thickness of the ejecta breccia in the Montagnais crater than observed at land impact sites of comparable crater size. Ejecta distribution in the Montagnais impact crater further differs from computer modelling of ocean impacts such as by Roddy et al. (1987) who suggested that 70% of ejecta should come to rest on the sea bottom within an area of three times the crater diameter. We have not found conclusive evidence

for solid ejecta in drilling materials from oil exploratory wells at a distance of twice the crater diameter on the shelf. This indicates more restricted solid ejecta distribution in submarine impact sites when compared with land impact structures. The shock impact features such as quartz lamellae, development of diaplectic glass and presence of recrystallized melt rock are similar to both marine and subaerial impacts. Cometary impacts as event markers in Earth history The aim here is not to resolve if meteorite impacts on the Earth's surface resulted in any particular biological extinction, but to review some of the constraints imposed by the cratering mechanism on the causes of biological extinctions and on formation of rare, geochemical horizons occasionally associated with such events (McLaren and Goodfellow, 1990). It could be suggested that it was the inadequate consideration of field observations on a global scale, combined with concerns for taxonomic rather than biomass change, which have resulted in forcing the evidence toward an evolutionary model for life, rather than accept some of the catastrophism theories. The causes of biological extinctions are examined here in a view of the recent statement by Shoemaker et al. (1990), that the number of active Earth crossing comets discovered is four times greater than the number of Earth crossing asteroids. This would imply up to four times larger probability for a cometary impact in comparison with an asteroid impact when only craters > 60 km in diameter are considered (Shoemaker et al., 1990). The following discussion is limited to three themes: (1) identification of impact events and their geologic recognition (which includes impactor composition and secondary effects of the impact); (2) impactor size and biological extinctions; (3) impact periodicity.

1. Impact event identification and their geologic recognition

The recognition and identification of an impact into the oceanic environment becomes increasingly important in our endeavour to understand biological evolution. Since large impact craters are formed

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more by cometary impacts than by asteroids, as implied by Shoemaker et al. (1990), the following discussion concentrates on identification of a cometary impact even though most of the discussed criteria are common to both cometary and asteroid impacts. Six criteria for impact identification are briefly considered below:
1.1 Presence of impact crater This is the most convincing identification feature, but one of the most difficult to locate. From the study of the Montagnais impact structure it can be shown that in a shallow sea the structure is rounded, bowl shaped, with a highly faulted crater perimeter, and is identifiable on reflection seismic data even when shallowly buried. The structure differs from land impacts by the absence of a raised rim and by the lack of fall-out ejecta accumulation at the crater perimeter. No impact structure has been recognized in the deep ocean, but it is speculated from the Montagnais structure, that such a structure will be shallow and subdued in shape, as suggested by the experiments of Gault and Sonett (1982). 1.2 Solid ejecta This represents the bulk of material ejected from the crater at velocities estimated by Melosh (1989) to be not higher than about one-third to one-fifth of the immediate post-shock particle velocity. Evidently, for a 20 km/s impactor on Earth the ejecta blanket would be only local. Study of the Montagnais impact site shows the majority of the solid ejecta at a shallow ocean site to be restricted to the immediate vicinity of the crater. Identification of solid ejecta with shockmetamorphism features is a convincing criterion for an impact (Sharpton and Grieve, 1990). But, considering the limited areal distribution of coarse ejecta, extinction horizon studies have to be pursued globally. An example is a massive biomass reduction event at the Frasnian/Famennian boundary, recognized in North America, Europe, China, Australia and north Africa (McLaren, 1988). But, increase in iridium to 0.35 ppb in the boundary layer in comparison to 0.016 ppb above and below the boundary and presence of microclasts with decreased crystal birefrigency is documented only

for South China (Wang et al., 1991). Isotropisation of grains in microclasts at the Frasnian/Famennian boundary in south China, associated with low iridium enrichment at the boundary is similar to features observed at the Montagnais impact structure, suggesting that the Frasnian/Famennian boundary event could have resulted from an impact of a large cometary nucleus into shallow ocean close to southern China. Thus, even though the biomass reduction event is global in its effects, the distribution of solid ejecta is areally restricted. This is further documented by distribution of shocked quartz grains from the K/T event, which were identified at the boundary in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and New Zealand, occurring in a broad, east-southeast trending belt (Izett, 1987; Izett et al., 1991; Hildebrand and Boynton, 1990; Sigurdsson et al., 1991; and others). But importantly, they are not present everywhere on the globe.
1.3 Tektites These are millimeter-size solidified liquid droplets lofted in the vapor plume and distributed over wide areas (Melosh, 1982). Their characteristics and geochemistry were reviewed in detail by Shaw and Wasserburg (1982), Koeberl (1986), Koeberl and Glass (1988), Glass and Burns (1988) and Sigurdsson et al. (1991). These authors showed that tektites and microtektites can be dispersed continent-wide, and geochemically traced back to the impact crater. In addition, chemical composition of tektites can provide evidence about the target rocks. The presence of microtektites, specifically when associated with the co-occurring iridium anomaly, is probably the most useful geologic marker for impact recognition. Not completely is resolved origin of microspherules, typically 1 mm in diameter, which commonly occur in association with the tektites. Some of the microspherules are hollow, others filled or replaced by a score of minerals such as sanidine, clays (smectite, kaolinite, jarosite), pyrite, goethite, skeletal spinels and clinopyroxenes (Izett, 1987; Glass et al., 1985; Kyte, 1990; Sigurdsson et al., 1991). Recognition of spherule origin is not easy, since morphologically similar features in marine deposits may represent pseudomorphosed tests of prasino-

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phytic algae (Hansen et al., 1986). Bohor and Betterton (1988) advanced an argument that since such microspherules occur in both marine and nonmarine sites and are ubiquitous at the K/T boundary layer, they are analogous to microtektites. It is this author's experience, that hollow, glassy-like microspherules occur in traces in other Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments of the Canadian continental margin. Some of them have a small depression, which leads the author to conclude that some of them are biogenic. Occurrence of microspherules in marine deposits thus can not be considered as proof of impact-generated ejecta, unless accompanied by other impact indicators as discussed in this paper.

impact originated event. But, despite these uncertainties even minor enrichment of iridium at biological extinction boundaries should be considered significant enough to initiate a thorough search for other impact indicators, before the impact hypothesis is rejected.

1.5 Megatsunami effects

These probably represent one of the most undervalued and overlooked criteria for ocean impact recognition. The only evidence presented to date is for the megatsunami deposits at the K/T boundary in the mid-continental shelf of Texas (Bourgeois et al., 1988), Caribbean (Hildebrand and Boynton, 1990), northeastern Mexico (Smit et al., 1992), Haiti (Florentin et al., 1991) and from the Gulf of Mexico (Alvarez et al., 1992). Ahrens and O'Keefe (1983) implied that tsunamis generated by an impact with energies of 1028, 1029 and 1030 J in an ocean 5 km deep will produce bottom erosion to 360, 2500 and 12,000km, respectively, from the impact site. The lack of precision of such estimates is indicated by energy calculations of Sleep et al. (1989), who suggested that a lower energy of 2 x 1028 J will result in evaporation of an entire ocean. An appreciation of the destructive power of megatsunami waves can be obtained from calculations of tsunami wave heights at various distances by Van der Bergh (1989) who suggested that a meteorite producing a 150 km crater in 5 km deep ocean would create a megatsunami wave height of 1300 m within a 300km radius and of 100 m height at a 10,000 km radius. Such a calculation finds support in the Gulf of Mexico study by Alvarez et al. (1992). In contrast, an impact producing a 50 km crater (such as the Montagnais) would result in a 200 m high wave within a 300 km radius and a 40 m wave over a 3000 km radius. An impact of a meteorite of 10 km radius anywhere in the Pacific Ocean should produce a megatsunami wave along the entire Pacific rim. In this context it is surprising that the only megatsunami deposits for K/T impact are those identified in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings (Bourgeois et al., 1988; Hildebrand and Boynton, 1991; Florentin et al., 1991; Alvarez et al., 1992; Smitet al., 1992). Does this reflect the complexity in calculating

1.4 Vaporplume
A vapor plume is produced by a transfer of momentum from an impactor to the atmosphere and then to the target. At high impactor velocity part of this plume can escape from the Earth (Zahnle, 1990), but most of it condensates and can give a rise to a geochemically distinct horizon. The concentrations of iridium, platinum group elements and the siderophile elements are different in asteroids and comets (Mason, 1971; Basilevskiy et al., 1984). Since the density of a cometary nucleus could be up to 35 times less than the density of an iron meteorite (Weissman, 1990), and potentially up to 80% of the comet volume could be water (Brandt, 1990), the lack of concentration of siderophile or platinum group elements in impact horizons should not be surprising and may not necessarily indicate that an impact did not occur, as implied by Orth et al. (1990). Vickery and Melosh (1990) calculated that for short-period comet the minimum mass required to deposit sufficient amounts of iridium corresponds to a cometary nucleus of 5-23 km in diameter, or alternatively for a long-period comet the diameter must be at least 16 km. These calculations provide support for the above statement that the impact of a large comet may not produce an easily recognizable geochemically distinct horizon. The problem of iridium as an impact indicator is compounded by iridium mobility during diagenesis. The present concentrations of iridium may reflect secondary migration rather than the primary depositional-

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nonlinear waves and in determining the conditions for breaking and bore formation and evolution as suggested by Strelitz (1979), or the effects of topography, or our misinterpretation of geologic record? As deep ocean waves approach a shore, they first traverse the edge of the continental margin. As shown by Sonett et al. (1991) from the conservation of momentum as the waves approach the shelf edge the waves' amplitude increases in dependence on bottom topography. For an impact of a bolide 0.2 km in diameter somewhere into ocean, at distance of 2500 km when the wave strikes the margin its height would increase by a factor of two or more if the margin is steep (Sonett et al., 1991). Thus, the impact of a body several kilometers in diameter into ocean has to result in significant erosion of the outer shelf, with the erosional effect gradually decreasing shoreward. This is consistent with an observation that ninety percent of the world-wide K/T boundary is characterised by a hiatus, which could be the result of erosion from tsunami waves. On the same note, hiatuses identified near the early/middle Eocene boundary in much of the U.S. Atlantic coastal plain (Olsen et al., 1988) could be related to the Montagnais impact. Miller et al. (1990) identified the stratigraphic position of one of these hiatuses in New Jersey as being within foraminiferal Zone P9 and the Montagnais impact has been placed by Aubry et al. (1990) within the same foraminiferal zone. The New Jersey coast is located about 1200 km from the Montagnais impact site within reach a megatsunami wave of about 90 m height, if we apply Van der Bergh's (1988) wave height calculation for the Montagnais impactor. Action of such waves would cause bottom erosion on the shelf and could result in a stratigraphic gap, paleontologically recognizable as a hiatus. An impact of 10 km in diameter asteroid will produce enough energy to cause an earthquake of 10.1 magnitude (McKinnon, 1982) to 12.4 magnitude on the Richter scale (McLaren and Goodfellow, 1990). These magnitudes are larger than any historically recorded earthquake. Such a release of energy would be sufficient to generate megaslumps and slides on continental margins and extensive turbidite deposition in the oceanic basin. There is no direct criterion to distinguish mass

wasting resulting from an impact from that caused by tectonically generated earthquakes. Only indirectly, if such deposits are synchronous with other impact indicators such as megatsunami deposits in coastal areas, the presence of mixed pelagic and bathyal microfauna over shelves and/or oceanic plateaus and confined to a stratigraphically narrow horizon, or with the development of a widespread unconformity, then it would be reasonable to consider an impact origin for such an event. If combined with even a slight increase in iridium at the top of a such layer, or above the unconformity, as observed at K/T boundary in northeast Mexico by Smit et al. (1992), than this would strengthen the possibility that the above features could result from an asteroid or cometary nucleus impact into an ocean.

1.6 Induced environmental changes The production of acid rain from nitrogen complexes, a sudden increase in CO2, heating of the ocean surface layer, and forest fires, have all been suggested as potential by-products of a meteorite impact on Earth surface (Wolbach et al., 1990; Gilmour et al., 1990; Zahnle, 1990). The combined effects of these processes could have an environmentally devastating effect on marine organisms and culminate in the extinction of more environmentally sensitive genera as discussed by Hsii and Mckenzie (1985) and Hsfi et al. (1985) in their "Strangelove Ocean" theory. 2. Impactor size and biological extinctions
The near-Earth asteroid population contains thousands of objects ranging in diameter from a few meters to 40 kin, which cross or approach the Earth's orbit (McFadden et al., 1991). The impact on life of a collision with an asteroid or comet has been investigated by several authors (e.g. Raup, 1988, 1990; Gerst and Zardecki, 1982; Aubry et al., 1990; Jansa et al., 1990). According to Raup (1988) an impact of an asteroid as small as 1 km in diameter could result in biological extinction, but larger 1 to 3 km diameter asteroids were suggested by Gerst and Zardecki (1982). Aubry et al. (1990) pointed out that since the Montagnais impactor did not result in any biological extinction, the size

280 of a life threatening impactor should be larger than 3 km. McLaren and Goodfellow (1990) arbitrarily selected a 5 km size as having drastic effects on physical and biological features on Earth, but did not provide any supporting evidence. Using the size of an impactor as one of the variables to assess biological extinction theories is flawed by inherent uncertainties in impactor velocity (which may vary by a factor five or more for a slow asteroid to a retrograde long-period comet) and bulk density (this may vary for a comet by a factor of 6; 0.25 g cm -3 to 1.5 g cm -3 with average 0.6 g e m - 3 ; Weissman, 1990). Density for iron asteroids could be even as high as 7.0 g cm -1, which could increase the uncertainty by a factor of 28. When revised cometary density of 0.6 g c m - 3 is applied to the Montagnais impactor calculation, it suggests an impact of a comet with nucleus of about 3.4 km in diameter, if an impact speed of 28.9 km s - ~ is selected. A better constraint relationship between cometary impacts and extinction can be obtained by using the impactor's energy, as reflected by the excavated crater diameter. Five points on Fig. 3 have been used to construct a curve, which shows the potential relationship between the size of the impact crater and the percent of genera being extinct. The points used for construction of the curve constrain only the lower half of it. The initiation point on the "killing curve" according to the Montagnais impact crater study (Aubry et al., 1990) is placed at the crater size >45 km in diameter. Craters smaller than this size have no associated biological extinction, as supported by study of the 24 km diameter Ries crater (Heissing, 1986). The 180km wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico (Hildebrand et al., 1991) is another point used in the curve construction. It is hypothesized that the formation of this crater probably caused extinction of 35 % of genera at the K / T boundary (Sepkoski, 1990). The synchroneity of the 35 km Manson crater, dated by 39Ar/4Ar as of 65.7 +__1 Ma (Hartung et al., 1990), with the Chicxulub crater suggests that both craters could have originated from splitting of a larger diameter asteroid or a comet (Izett, 1991; McHone and Dietz, 1991). The relationship between late Eocene extinctions, when 10% of genera become extinct and the 100 km wide Popigai crater, formed

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Fig. 3. Postulatedextinctionscurves. The curvesare constructed by plotting impact crater diameter versus percent of marine genera killed. The threshold of zero extinction is placed at impact crater of 45 km diameter, defined by the Montagnais structure. The other points for curves construction are 35% extinction at the K/T boundary and 10% extinction for the late Eocene (Sepkoski, 1990).The relation betweenthe Popigai structure and late Eoceneextinctionsis conjectural. Curve .4 is based on Raup's (1990) suggestion that such a curve should be of sigmoidal shape; curve B, preferred by the author is hyperbolic and documents that additional impacts contributed to environmental stresses at the K/T boundary. The total life extinction is indicated for an impact of comet 70 km in diameter, which would result in excavation of about 1400km wide crater. about 39 to 35 Ma ago (Grieve, 1982; R. Bottomley pers. commun., 1989) is suspected, but unproven. These extinction periods are used for construction of"kill curves" A and B on Fig. 3. A sigmoidal curve shape as preferred by Raup (1990), indicates that the total extinction of life may occur by the impact of a meteorite about 70 km in diameter, excavating a crater about 1400km in diameter (assuming D/d=20; D = c r a t e r diameter; d = impactor diameter; curve A, Fig. 3). The estimated size of the impactor closely corresponds to calculated 65 km in diameter bolide, which according to Maher and Stevenson (1988) could heat up the atmosphere and the surface by 100C. The total annihilation of ecosystems was estimated by Sleep et al. (1989) to result from an impact of an object 440 km in diameter hitting the Earth at 17 km s-1 and creating a crater 1500 km in diameter. Since the crater excavation is better representation of kinetic energy of an impact than the bolide diameter, then good agreement exists between the esti-

COMETARY IMPACTS INTO OCEANS AND BIOLOGICAL EXTINCTIONS

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mate of a 1500 km crater and life annihilation on Earth by Sleep et al. (1989) and the 1400 km crater estimated for life extinction in this paper (Fig. 3). The curve B on Fig. 3 is hyperbolic and intuitively favored by the author. If correct, then it suggests that additional environmental disturbances such as impact of other, smaller bodies (multiple impacts) may be responsible for increased cumulative stress on the biosphere and extinctions at K/T boundary, as suggested by Izett (1991) and McHone and Dietz (1991). That no vertebrates heavier than 25kg survived the terminal Cretaceous event (Russell, 1976), indicates that the fall of comet or asteroid resulting in formation of a 180 km diameter impact crater could be fatal to human society.

3. Periodicity
The difficulty in estimating the density of a comet nucleus results in various theories about the production of craters by comets on Earth's surface (e.g., Shoemaker and Wolfe, 1982; Shoemaker et al., 1988; Weissman, 1982, 1990; Bailey and Stagg, 1988). The estimates by Shoemaker and his colleagues that the number of Earth crossing comets is four times greater than the number of Earth crossing asteroids could be interpreted to imply that cometary impacts are 4 times more likely to cause biological extinctions. Grieve (1984) showed that during the last 250 Ma at least 5 craters larger than 45 km have been produced. The newly discovered Chicxulub crater in Mexico (Hildebrand et al., 1991) is the sixth crater in this population. Of these six impacts three are known to be located in the ocean. If we consider a random distribution of impacts on the Earth's surface (taking the current ocean area of 72% of the Earth surface) then the number of such large impacts should be 12. This would translate into a rate of 21 Ma for impact craters bigger than 45 km. But, if we limit impacts only to the oceanic areas, the rate would decrease to 31 Ma. It is very probable that above estimates based on current evidence for impacts do not reflect true impact rates (Weissman, 1990). A location map of known impact sites compiled by Grieve (1987) shows the maximum concentration of impacts

within areas geologically well studied, such as North America and Europe. Since a random distribution can be expected, Grieve's tabulation gives only lower limits to the number of impacts. This number should be increased at least by a factor of 2 to account for those areas such as Africa, Asia and the polar regions where geologic exploration is low. A further increase by a factor of 3 would account for the ocean covered area. Such adjusted estimates would increase an average time between impacts to 10.5 Ma for formation of craters > 45 km in diameter. Revised impact "frequency" finds support in calculations of cratering rates for the last 100 Ma by Shoemaker et al. (1990). These authors concluded that for the above period there should be eight craters > 60 km in diameter, from which five should have resulted from cometary impacts. Such estimates translate into a 12.5 Ma average time between impacts not observed in biological extinctions record. But, this "frequency" agrees with the observations of Schultz (1987) who suggested that young lunar craters appear to cluster in a nonrandom fashion at intervals of 10_+5 Ma and 30+ 10 Ma. Similar time interval also has been obtained by Perlmutter and Muller (1988), who noted that the cosmic ray exposure age of type H chondrites (high metal ordinary chondrite) recovered on the Earth tended to cluster at values around 7+_3 Ma and 30+_6 Ma and suggested that this may be proof of a flux of periodic impactors through the planetary system at those times, a conclusion disputed by Wiessman (1990). Revised mean probability of collision with Earth by the estimated population of Earth crossers by Shoemaker et al. (1990) indicates that comet nucleii with diameters > 2.5 km could strike the Earth at the rate of one every 10 Ma; comets with nucleii > 10 km in diameter probably at a rate of one every 100 Ma. Such data agree with asteroid flux published by Alvarez (1987; Fig. 4 herein). Assuming that 10% of marine genera could be killed by the impact of a comet with an 8 km diameter nucleus as derived from Fig. 3, then application of the Alvarez flux curve (Fig. 4) suggests a 6x 10 -~ yr -1 waiting time for such an impact and 2 x 10-8 yr-1 for K/T types of extinctions. Such a "frequency" of impacts that could have catastrophic effect on marine biota is two to

282

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three times lower than that observed from the paleontological record (Sepkoski, 1990).
Conclusions

The criteria employed for recognition of impacts of extraterrestrial bodies into shallow ocean should include several features different from land impacts, such as: cylindrical shape of central uplift, lack of accumulation of a fall-out breccia on the crater perimeter and a bevelled, rather than a raised crater rim. However, microscopic scale features, such as common occurrence of grains with decreased anisotropization; the presence of pressure lamellae in quartz and feldspar grains and the varying degree of diaplectic glass development even within a single ejecta clast are shock metamorphism features similar to those observed in most land impacts. Geochemically, based on the interpreted Montagnais cometary impact into shallow

ocean (Jansa et al., 1989), such an impact could be accompanied by only low iridium enrichment and may lack enrichment in other siderophile and platinum group elements. This observation contradicts the interpretation of similar low iridium anomalies at other Phanerozoic boundaries by Orth et al. (1990), who concluded that they are an unlikely evidence of meteorite impacts. The lack of geochemical evidence for an impact event at the impact horizon is expected for large meteorites, since part of the condensate vapour plume expands beyond Earth's atmosphere (Vickery and Melosh, 1990). This would result in highly diluted fallout on Earth's surface, and thus would not generate an easily identifiable geochemical horizon. For this reason verification of impact theories cannot be based solely on geochemical evidence and a full search for additional indicators must be rigorously pursued. This search should include evidence for solid ejecta with shock-metamorphism features and tektites. An important consideration is the regionally restricted distribution of solid ejecta as a consequence of atmospheric conditions at the time of the impact. This places constraint on interpretation of the impact event in that the lack of solid ejecta or of geochemical enrichment does not constitute sufficient evidence to disclaim the impact origin for the rare geologic event horizon, unless studied globally. One of the most overlooked indicators of oceanic impacts is the development of megatsunami deposits on continental margins and in nearshore areas, which may be accompanied by the development of widespread unconformities, hiatuses and erosion surfaces. In contrast to tectonically or eustaticaUy induced unconformities, the impact generated unconformity would show the largest time gap (deepest erosion) near the shelf edge. The presence of horizons with mixed pelagic, bathyal and benthic microfauna above the unconformities should be another indicator to be examined for evidence of wave erosion and sediment redeposition. While similar features may also result from upwellings on continental margins the latter events should encompass a much longer time than effects produced by an ocean impact event. Extrinsically related mass wasting on continental margins, specifically in the upper continental slope-outer shelf

COMETARYIMPACTSINTOOCEANSAND BIOLOGICALEXTINCTIONS

283

area, could result from the combined effect of shock wave propagation, generating major earthquakes and megatsunami waves. Thus, the causes for development of megaslumps on the continental margins and extensive turbidite deposits in the deep ocean basins should include not only earthquake or mass overloading triggering mechanism consideration, but also large meteorite impacts into oceans. The Montagnais impact provided the criteria to scale the size of an impacting cometary body and the resulting biological extinctions (Fig. 3). When the known occurrence of impact craters >45 km in diameter and formed during the last 250 Ma is corrected to allow for the uneven geologic exploration of continental areas and for the ocean surface area, a 10 Ma average time between impacts is obtained. This "frequency" is in good agreement with impact rate observed for young lunar craters by Schultz (1987), the periodicity obtained for cosmic ray exposure time for H type chondrites by Perlmutter and Muller (1988), and the "frequency" of impacts from Earth orbit crossing comets with nucleus > 2.5 km, by Shoemaker et al. (1990). If, 10% and 35% of all marine genera would become extinct as a consequence of an impact of comet which would excavate craters 100 and 180 km in diameter respectively, such events may recur at a rate of about 6x10 -7 yr -1 to 2 x 10 -8 yr 1 (Figs. 3 and 4). Such an impact rate suggests that only three minor and one major biological extinction events, during the last 250 Ma could be a consequence of an impact of a comet into an ocean. The remaining biologic extinctions as identified by Sepkoski (1990) most probably reflect tectonic, climatic, or oceanographic changes. The final analysis of the causes of biological extinctions and other rare geologic events requires gathering of many local geologic observations into a united global pattern, since even though the extinction event is globally recognizable, most of the physical indices of an ocean impact are only regional in extent. In pursuing the impact theory no single criterion is sufficient to discriminate between potential causes of biological extinctions. It is only through a multiparameter study as emphasized in this paper, that sufficient evidence

may be provided for sudden and violent impact events during Earth history, which may have played significant role in biological evolution.

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Digby McLaren and Ken Hsii for stimulating discussions of the subject and to Richard Grieve for help with some impact crater/impactor calculations. The author is indebted to Kevin Coffin and Graham Williams and to unknown reviewers for critical comments and helpful suggestions. Acknowledged is the helpful assistance of K. Coffin, N. Koziel and G. Grant during manuscript preparation. This is Geological Survey of Canada Contribution No. 41391.

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