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An experimental assessment of the ignition of forest fuels by the thermal pulse generated by the Cretaceous–Palaeogene impact at Chicxulub

Claire M. Belcher, Rory M. Hadden, Guillermo Rein, Joanna V. Morgan, Natalia Artemieva and Tamara Goldin
Journal of the Geological Society, 172, 175-185, 22 January 2015, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2014-082
Claire M. Belcher
1College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
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  • For correspondence: [email protected]
Rory M. Hadden
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
3Present address: School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK
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Guillermo Rein
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
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Joanna V. Morgan
4Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
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Natalia Artemieva
5Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
6Institute for Dynamics and Geospheres, Moscow, 119334, Russia
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Tamara Goldin
7Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
8Present address: Nature Geoscience, Nature Publishing Group, London N1 9XW, UK
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Abstract

A large extraterrestrial body hit the Yucatán Peninsula at the end of the Cretaceous period. Models suggest that a substantial amount of thermal radiation was delivered to the Earth’s surface by the impact, leading to the suggestion that it was capable of igniting extensive wildfires and contributed to the end-Cretaceous extinctions. We have reproduced in the laboratory the most intense impact-induced heat fluxes estimated to have reached different points on the Earth’s surface using a fire propagation apparatus and investigated the ignition potential of forest fuels. The experiments indicate that dry litter can ignite, but live fuels typically do not, suggesting that any ignition caused by impact-induced thermal radiation would have been strongly regional dependent. The intense, but short-lived, pulse downrange and at proximal and intermediate distances from the impact is insufficient to ignite live fuel. However, the less intense but longer-lasting thermal pulse at distal locations may have ignited areas of live fuels. Because plants and ecosystems are generally resistant to single localized fire events, we conclude that any fires ignited by impact-induced thermal radiation cannot be directly responsible for plant extinctions, implying that heat stress is only part of the end-Cretaceous story.

  • © 2015 The Authors
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is published by The Geological Society of London under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics

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Journal of the Geological Society: 172 (2)
Journal of the Geological Society
Volume 172, Issue 2
March 2015
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An experimental assessment of the ignition of forest fuels by the thermal pulse generated by the Cretaceous–Palaeogene impact at Chicxulub

Claire M. Belcher, Rory M. Hadden, Guillermo Rein, Joanna V. Morgan, Natalia Artemieva and Tamara Goldin
Journal of the Geological Society, 172, 175-185, 22 January 2015, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2014-082
Claire M. Belcher
1College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: [email protected]
Rory M. Hadden
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
3Present address: School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
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Guillermo Rein
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • Search for this author on this site
Joanna V. Morgan
4Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Natalia Artemieva
5Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
6Institute for Dynamics and Geospheres, Moscow, 119334, Russia
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  • Search for this author on this site
Tamara Goldin
7Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
8Present address: Nature Geoscience, Nature Publishing Group, London N1 9XW, UK
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An experimental assessment of the ignition of forest fuels by the thermal pulse generated by the Cretaceous–Palaeogene impact at Chicxulub

Claire M. Belcher, Rory M. Hadden, Guillermo Rein, Joanna V. Morgan, Natalia Artemieva and Tamara Goldin
Journal of the Geological Society, 172, 175-185, 22 January 2015, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2014-082
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