The original call for proposals to join the CSDP Science team

The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) in conjunction with the Instituto de Geofisica of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico will sponsor a 2-3 km deep, continuously cored drill hole in the 200 km diameter Chicxulub KT impact crater. The Chicxulub Scientific Drilling Project (CSDP) is anticipated to begin mid-2001. The drill site will be located south of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, 60-70 km from the center of the crater, in order to recover a complete section through the impact-generated melt rocks and breccias inside the crater rim. A section of the overlying Cenozoic deposits also will be drilled.

The Investigator Team (see below) is seeking interested members of the international community to form a Science Team. The selected Science Team members will assist in fulfilling several tasks that are required to meet the basic science goals of this project, including: 1. To extract hydrologic, paleoenvironmental, biostratigraphic, and current stress-state information that bears directly on the Cenozoic evolution of the impact basin and the adjoining region. 2. To construct the core stratigraphy (including magnetostratigraphy) and correlate it with seismic and well log data for other regions of the basin.
3. To characterize all impact-generated melt rock and breccia units using standard geochemical, petrologic, sedimentologic, petrographic, and physical properties techniques.
4.  To determine the composition and physical state of the underlying displaced Mesozoic sediments,
Ancillary geophysical surveys are also solicited.

The Science TeamÇs initial results will be published as a collection of papers in a peer-reviewed journal. Members will have exclusive access to core samples following the initial (on-site) documentation phase and ending with submittal of these initial papers within 12 months following core extraction.

All interested parties are encouraged to submit a short 3-4  page proposal outlining how they would like to participate in the project, their contributions to scientific goals, techniques and approaches to be used, and anticipated sources of funding. A brief 1-2 page resume of the primary investigator should be included.
Researchers, who already submitted a proposal, please contact us before preparing a new proposal.
Please send proposals to Dr. Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi at  Instituto de Geofisica, Circuito Institutos s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, D. Coyoacan, 04510 Mexico, D.F. (or electronically to csdp@tonatiuh.igeofcu.unam.mx) by no later than Feb. 15, 2001.

Investigator Team members include: Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi (Director, Instituto de Geofisica, UNAM, Mexico, e-mail: juf@tonatiuh.igeofcu.unam.mx), Dante Moran-Zenteno (Director, Instituto de Geologia, UNAM, Mexico, e-mail: dante@geologia.unam.mx), Virgil L. Sharpton (Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, US. e-mail: buck.sharpton@gi.alaska.edu), Dieter Stöffler (Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, e-mail: dieter.stoeffler@rz.hu-berlin.de), Jan Smit (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL. e-mail: smit@geo.vu.nl ), Richard T. Buffler (University of Texas, Institute for Geophysics, Austin, TX, US.  e-mail: dick@ig.utexas.edu.

  GPS coordinates: 20°44'37.73"N, 89°43'7.06"W

3D view of the Chicxulub crater gravity

Chicxulub residual Gravity

Chicxulub gravity gradients

Chicxulub Scientific Drilling Program (CSDP)