The ICDP-USGS Deep Drilling Project in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure: Results from the Eyreville Core Holes
Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes
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Published:January 01, 2009
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Charles S. Cockell, Aaron L. Gronstal, Mary A. Voytek, Julie D. Kirshtein, Kai Finster, Ward E. Sanford, Mihaela Glamoclija, Gregory S. Gohn, David S. Powars, J. Wright Horton, Jr., 2009. "Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes", The ICDP-USGS Deep Drilling Project in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure: Results from the Eyreville Core Holes, Gregory S. Gohn, Christian Koeberl, Kenneth G. Miller, Wolf Uwe Reimold
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Asteroid and comet impact events are known to cause profound disruption to surface ecosystems. The aseptic collection of samples throughout a 1.76-km-deep set of cores recovered from the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure has allowed the study of the subsurface biosphere in a region disrupted by an impactor. Microbiological enumerations suggest the presence of three major microbiological zones. The upper zone (127–867 m) is characterized by a logarithmic decline in microbial abundance from the surface through the postimpact section of Miocene to Upper Eocene marine sediments and across the transition into the upper layers of the impact tsunami resurge sediments and sediment megablocks. In the middle zone (867–1397 m) microbial abundances are below detection. This zone is predominantly quartz sand, primarily composed of boulders and blocks, and it may have been mostly sterilized by the thermal pulse delivered during impact. No samples were collected from the large granite block (1096–1371 m). The lowest zone (below 1397 m) of increasing microbial abundance coincides with a region of heavily impact-fractured, hydraulically conductive suevite and fractured schist. These zones correspond to lithologies influenced by impact processes. Our results yield insights into the influence of impacts on the deep subsurface biosphere.
- Calvert Formation
- Cenozoic
- Chesapeake Bay impact structure
- cores
- Eastover Formation
- impacts
- International Continental Scientific Drilling Program
- lithostratigraphy
- living taxa
- microorganisms
- middle Miocene
- Miocene
- Neogene
- Northampton County Virginia
- Pliocene
- Saint Marys Formation
- Tertiary
- United States
- upper Miocene
- Virginia
- Yorktown Formation
- Chickahominy Formation
- Eyreville Farm