A Search for Soot from Global Wildfires in Central Pacific Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary and Other Extinction and Impact Horizon Sediments

Abstract

Hypotheses of global wildfires following the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) boundary impact are supported by high concentrations of elemental carbon (3.6 mg cm^-2) and soot (1.8 mg cm^-2) in DSDP Site 465, which was located several thousand kilometers from potential continental sources at 65 Ma. Soot is not preserved at four other central Pacific KT localities, but this is attributed to loss during oxic diagenesis. We find no evidence for wildfires related to major impacts in the late Eocene or to Ir anomalies and extinctions in the late Cenomanian.