Doctoral student receives GSA Award to promote understanding of the consequences of the Chicxulub asteroid impact

Hermann is performing research focused on understanding the geological and paleoenvironmental consequences of the Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 Ma ago. This event triggered the last of the mass extinctions of species on our planet. Shedding light on this dramatic history, he is studying several geologic records in North America. A section of Gorgonilla Island in the Colombian Pacific is also being investigated. Collaborators on the Project are from Colombia, Mexico, Italy, China, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA.

Some of the results of this research have already been published in the journals Terra Nova and Geology. Results are also part of the book The Geology of Colombia, published by the Colombian Geological Service.

The grant was awarded for the project proposal “Searching sedimentologic evidence of the Chicxulub Mega-Earthquake from the Cretaceous – Paleogene stratigraphic record in Alabama.”

Hermann recently returned from a field campaign in northeastern Mexico. He was invited by collaborators Drs. Francisco J. Vega and Michelangelo Martini, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The collaboration was fruitful, evidence of the Chicxulub mega-earthquake was found in the geologic record of the Chihuahuan Desert. Samples were collected in the states of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila. These datapoints from Mexico and the USA will form the basis of a paper in preparation. They will also be presented in October at the 2022 GSA Annual Meeting being held in Denver, Colorado.

Hermann’s PhD advisor is Dr. Ying Cui in the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies.

References

• Bermúdez, H.D., Arenillas, I., Arz, J.A., Vajda, V., Renne, P.R., Gilabert, V. & Rodríguez, J.V. 2019. The Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary deposits on Gorgonilla Island. In: Gómez, J. & Mateus–Zabala, D. (editors), The Geology of Colombia, Volume 3 Paleogene – Neogene. Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Publicaciones Geológicas Especiales 37, p. 1–19. Bogotá. https://doi.org/10.32685/pub.esp.37.2019.01​