Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project
Description
The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure is among the largest and best preserved impact craters on Earth. Research topics include studies of impact processes, regional basin evolution (comparing impact effects with "normal" effects produced by tectonics, global sea-level, and sediment supply on a passive continental margin), hydrogeology, borehole and regional geophysics, and the deep biosphere. The subsurface structure of the Chesapeake Bay crater is constrained by several shallow coreholes, marine seismic-reflection surveys, and gravity analyses. Major subdivisions of the structure are a circa 38-km-diameter central crater enclosed by a 24-km-wide annular trough. Several characteristics make the Chesapeake Bay structure unique among subaerial and submarine impact craters on Earth. The goal of the project is to drill a 2.2-km-deep corehole near the central uplift within the "moat" of the structure's central crater, to obtain as thick and undisturbed a post-impact succession as possible, and a thick section of impactites, and to reach the sub-crater basement to study the shock barometry and fracturing of these rocks.
Drilling in the central Chesapeake Bay crater will provide important constraints on cratering processes in multi-layered marine targets in general and for comparison with results from the larger Chicxulub crater, in particular. The drilling will provide unique constraints on
- the crater structure, depth, morphology, and formative processes, and
- the crater materials, including impactite and basement lithologies, stratigraphy, mineralogy, chemistry, fractures, and physical properties, and
- numerical models of impact processes.
(Photo ©:NASA)
See also:
Location
North America, United States of America, Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Eyreville
Coordinates
37° 19' 18'' N, 75° 58' 32'' W (Please scroll down to end of page for more information.)
Project Start and End
- Begin of drilling September 15, 2005
- End of drilling May, 2006
Programs and Funding
- ICDP Germany - German Science Foundation
- International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration Science Mission Directorate
- U.S. Geological Survey, USGS
- U.S. National Science Foundation
Principal Investigators
- Gregory S. Gohn, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Reston, National Center
- Christian Koeberl, University of Vienna, Center for Earth Sciences, Department of Lithospheric Research
- Kenneth G. Miller, Rutgers University, Wright Labs, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Wolf Uwe Reimold, Museum fuer Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University Berlin
Cooperating Principal Investigators
- Henning Dypvik, University of Oslo, Department of Geosciences, Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (PeGG)
- J. Wright Horton, Jr., U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Reston, National Center
- H. Jay Melosh, University of Arizona, Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
- Gregory S. Mountain, Rutgers University, Wright Labs, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- C. Wylie Poag, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Woods Hole
- David S. Powars, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Reston
Partners and Contractors
- DOSECC, Inc.
- GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Scientific Drilling, (Operational Support Group OSG/ICDP)
- Museum fuer Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University Berlin
- Rutgers University, Wright Labs, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Reston, National Center
- U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Woods Hole
- University of Arizona, Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
- University of Oslo, Department of Geosciences, Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (PeGG)
- University of Vienna, Center of Earth Sciences
Keywords
CBAY, Cenozoic Sequence, Climate Change, Eocene, Global Environment, ICDP-2004/06, Impact Crater, Paleoclimatology, Sea-level Changes, U.S.A., Virginia
Current State
Drilling operations finalized, scientific evaluations are ongoing
Google Earth/Maps
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| News Highlights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ECORD/ICDP MagellanPlus Call for Proposals Lake Ohrid Drilling Recovered Continuous Record Lake El’gygytgyn Second Overview Paper Scientific Drilling Issue 15 Online 2013 International Van Earthquake Symposium NSF Workshop: Drilling Active Tectonics and Magmatism New SAG Composition for 2013 The Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project Scientific Drilling Issue 14 Online Imaging the Past to Imagine our Future | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily News from Sites | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lake Ohrid:
Coring at Gradiste goes on. At the end of the day, the nightshift was at ca 81 m below lake floor and... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calendar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NSF Workshop: Drilling Active Tectonics and Magmatism NSF Workshop: Drilling into High-Enthalpy Geothermal Systems 2013 International Van Earthquake Symposium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contacts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For contact information about the ICDP members please select the first letter of the name from the list below. To see the full information or update your personal data you must login first.
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