Chicxulub Crater Formation

Simulation the Chicxulub‐forming impact: a 16‐km diameter projectile impacting at 17 km/s onto 3 km of sediments, overlying 32 km of granite (the crust), overlying dunite (the mantle). Left shows materials (colors) and stratigraphy (lines) and right shows integrated effective plastic shear strain. Black lines are rows of initially horizontal Lagrangian tracers; the thicker black lines correspond to the boundaries between the upper/mid/lower crust, sediments, and mantle. Vapor is removed for computational efficiency (the projectile is vaporized). Time is scaled by a factor of 1/7.5. Note that the values for the effective plastic strain scale are larger compared to movie #1, and strain‐localization behind the shock front is present but not emphasized by the color scale. Reference: Dynamic Fault Weakening and the Formation of Large Impact Craters by Senft, L. E., S. T. Stewart. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 287, 471-482, doi:, 2009.