[CBAY] CBAY - Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project
ICDP-Topics:
Climate & Ecosystems
Year of Application: 2004
Expedition ID: 5001
Current Status: completed
Master Data
Prof. Dr. Falko Langenhorst (PI)
Prof. Dr. Uwe Reimold (PI)
Prof. Dr. Agnes Kontny (PI)
Prof. Dr. Axel Schippers (PI)
Dr. Martin Krüger (PI)
Prof. Dr. Alexander Deutsch (PI)
Dr. Vera Assis Fernandes (PI)
Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Burkhardt (PI)
Dr. Ralf-Thomas Schmitt (Scientific Participant)
Dr. Dennis Harries (Scientific Participant)
Christoph Mang (Scientific Participant)
Dr. Peter Schulte (Scientific Participant)
Dr. Birgit Plessen (Scientific Participant)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kenkmann (Scientific Participant)
Dr. Sibylle Mayr (Scientific Participant)
Dr. Anja Breuker (Scientific Participant)
Projektstart: 8 January, 2005
Projektdauer: 3
Geologisches
Alter: eocene
Latitude: 37°19'18''N
Kontinente:
Regionen & Städte:
Longitude: 75°58'33''W
Länder:
Themen:
Description
The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure is among the largest and best preserved of the known impact craters on Earth. We propose a multidisciplinary and international drilling project at this crater, involving an international research team. Research topics include studies of impact processes, regional basin evolution (comparing impact effects with “normal” effects produced by tectonics, global sea-level, and sediment supply on a passive continental margin), hydrogeology, borehole and regional geophysics, and the deep biosphere. The subsurface structure of the Chesapeake Bay crater is constrained by several shallow coreholes, over 2,000 km of marine seismic-reflection surveys, and gravity analyses. Major subdivisions of the structure are a circa 38-km-diameter central crater enclosed by a 24-km-wide annular trough. Several characteristics make the Chesapeake Bay structure unique among subaerial and submarine impact craters on Earth because: (1) it is associated with the North American tektite strewn field, (2) it had a multi-layered, (rheologically varied) marine target, (3) it is a well-preserved and relatively young structure compared to most large terrestrial craters, (4) its location on a passive continental margin has prevented the tectonic disruption that is typical of many large terrestrial craters, (5) its original location on a relatively deep continental shelf allowed marine deposition to resume immediately and bury it rapidly and completely, thereby preventing subsequent erosion; (6) the upper part of the breccia section inside the crater was derived from resurge currents and impact-generated tsunami waves, (7) the breccia body contains a large volume of impact-generated brine, and (8) the crater underlies a densely populated urban corridor, whose two million citizens are still affected by crater-related phenomena, specifically the presence of salty ground water within the structure. Thus, we propose to drill a 2.2-km-deep corehole near the central uplift within the “moat” of the structure’s central crater (as defined from seismic and gravity data), to obtain as thick and undisturbed a post-impact succession as possible, and a thick section of impactites (hopefully including impact melt rocks), and to reach the sub-crater basement to study the shock barometry and fracturing of these rocks.
Related Publications
Breuker, Anja (2017). "Analysis of the Microbial Composition of the Deep Biosphere in Four Different Sediments" Dissertation
Schwarz, Winfried H., Trieloff, Mario, Bollinger, Klemens, Gantert, Niklas, Fernandes, Vera A., Meyer, Hans-Peter, Povenmire, Hal, Jessberger, Elmar K., Guglielmino, Massimo, Koeberl, Christian (2016). "Coeval ages of Australasian, Central American and Western Canadian tektites reveal multiple impacts 790ka ago" Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 178 p307-319
Popov, Y., Mayr, S., Romushkevich, R., Burkhardt, H., Wilhelm, H. (2014). "Comparison of petrophysical properties of impactites for four meteoritic impact structures" Meteoritics & Planetary Science p896-920
Mang, Christoph, Kontny, Agnes (2013). "Origin of two Verwey transitions in different generations of magnetite from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA" Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 118 p5195-5207
Mang, Christoph, Kontny, Agnes, Fritz, Jörg, Schneider, Reinhard (2013). "Shock experiments up to 30 GPa and their consequences on microstructures and magnetic properties in pyrrhotite" Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 14 p64-85
Cockell, Charles S, Voytek, Mary A, Gronstal, Aaron L, Finster, Kai, Kirshtein, Julie D, Howard, Kieren, Reitner, Joachim, Gohn, Gregory S, Sanford, Ward E, Horton Jr, J Wright, Kallmeyer, J., Kelly, L., Powars, D. S. (2012). "Impact disruption and recovery of the deep subsurface biosphere" Astrobiology p231-246
Mang, Christoph (2012). "Impact-Related Modifications of Magnetite and Pyrrhotite and Their Consequences for the Magnetic Properties of Rocks from the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure, Virginia, USA" Dissertation
Mang, Christoph, Kontny, Agnes, Harries, Dennis, Langenhorst, Falko, Hecht, Lutz (2012). "Iron deficiency in pyrrhotite of suevites from the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, USA—A consequence of shock metamorphism?" Meteoritics & Planetary Science p277-295
Bartosova, Katerina, Hecht, Lutz, Koeberl, Christian, Libowitzky, Eugen, Reimold, Wolf Uwe (2011). "Melt in the impact breccias from the Eyreville drill cores, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA" Meteoritics & Planetary Science 46 p396-430
Breuker,Anja, Koeweker,Gerrit, Blazejak,Anna, Schippers,Axel (2011). "The Deep Biosphere in Terrestrial Sediments in the Chesapeake Bay Area, Virginia, USA" Frontiers in Microbiology p156
Gibson, Roger L, Reimold, Wolf Uwe (2010). "Introduction: Impact cratering and planetary studies—a fifty-year perspective" Geological Society of America Special Papers pvii-xii
Heidinger, Philipp, Wilhelm, Helmut, Popov, Yuri, Šafanda, Jan, Burkhardt, Hans, Mayr, Sibylle (2009). "First results of geothermal investigations, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Eyreville core holes" Geological Society of America Special Papers Special Paper 458 p931-940
Skála, Roman, Langenhorst, Falko, Deutsch, Alex (2009). "Geochemical characteristics of basement target rocks, suevitic glasses from the Eyreville B drill core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, and three bediasites" Geological Society of America Special Papers 458 p435-445
Mangelsdorf, Kai, Kallmeyer, Jens (2009). "Integration of Deep Biosphere Research into the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program" Scientific Drilling 10
Shah, Anjana K., Daniels, David L., Kontny, Agnes, Brozena, John (2009). "Megablocks and melt pockets in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure constrained by magnetic field measurements and properties of the Eyreville and Cape Charles cores" Geological Society of America Special Papers 458 p195-208
Mayr, Sibylle I., Burkhardt, Hans, Popov, Yuri, Romushkevich, Raissa, Miklashevskiy, Dmitry, Gorobtsov, Denis, Heidinger, Philipp, Wilhelm, Helmut (2009). "Physical rock properties of the Eyreville core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure" Geological Society of America Special Papers 458 p137-163
Elbra, Tiiu, Kontny, Agnes, Pesonen, Lauri J (2009). "Rock-magnetic properties of the ICDP-USGS Eyreville core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA" Geological Society of America Special Papers Special Paper 458 p119-135
Gohn, G. S., Koeberl, C., Miller, K. G., Reimold, W. U., Browning, J. V., Cockell, C. S., Horton, J. W., Kenkmann, T., Kulpecz, A. A., Powars, D. S., Sanford, W. E., Voytek, M. A. (2008). "Deep Drilling into the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure" Science 320 p1740-1745
Gohn, G. S., Koeberl, C., Miller, K. G., Reimold, W. U., the Scientific Staff of the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling, Project (2006). "Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project Completes Coring" Sci. Dril. 3 p34-37
Deutsch, Alexander, Koeberl, Christian (2006). "Establishing the link between the Chesapeake Bay impact structure and the North American tektite strewn field: The Sr-Nd isotopic evidence" Meteoritics & Planetary Science 41 p689-703