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Organic geochemical evidence for global fires at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary

Nature volume 338, pages 57–60 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

MANY hypotheses have been advanced to explain the mass extinction at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary1–3. Recently, Wolbach et al. 4 suggested that massive forest fires were triggered by the impact of a meteorite, and cite as evidence the presence of elemental carbon (mainly soot) from K/T boundaries5. Almost all of the airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) generated by pyrosynthesis are adsorbed, through hydrogen bonding, on the surface of soot, the participate fraction from combustion6,7. Although soot itself is a polymer of polybenzenoid radicals, early termination of polymerization leads to enhanced PAH production. Pyrosynthesis of PAHs is thus favoured by a chemically reducing atmosphere. If there were wildfires, a group of high-molecular-weight parent PAHs characteristic of combustion, predominating over their alkyl homologues8,11, should be present in K/T boundary samples known to contain soot4,5. Here we compare K/T samples from New Zealand, Italy and Denmark to those from above and below the boundary, and find enhanced PAH contents and distribution profiles that reflect a pyrolytic origin. The data thus provide the first detailed organic-molecular evidence for the combustion source of organic carbon at the K/T sites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90024–1567, USA

    M. I. Venkatesan & J. Dahl

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  1. M. I. Venkatesan
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  2. J. Dahl
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Venkatesan, M., Dahl, J. Organic geochemical evidence for global fires at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Nature 338, 57–60 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/338057a0

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