Seismites in Calizas Peñas of Campanian-Maastrichtian age in Sierra de los Órganos, western Cuba
Keywords:
Calizas Peñas, seismites, ejecta, ChicxulubAbstract
The informal unit Calizas Peñas of Campanian-Maastrichtian age outcrops to the SW of the town of Pons, Sierra de los Órganos, in western Cuba. It is composed of dark gray to black limestone, well stratified with black chert intercalations. This unit underlies the laminated limestone of the Ancón Formation of Early Paleocene-Middle Eocene age. The objective was to determine the petrographic and micropaleontological characteristics of the Peñas Limestones and their relationship with the Chicxulub catastrophic event. It is a Cretaceous micrite with recrystallized mudstones-wackestones texture, partly wackestones-mudstones and brecciated wackestones, while the Paleogene laminated limestone is partially brecciated wackestones-packestones and wackestones with 30%-40% of fossils present. There are different types of fractures in the Cretaceous micrite, where the folded lamination, systems of straight, parallel and inclined microcracks, irregular cracks with variable thicknesses, among other elements, stand out. These features correspond to sismites, related to the Chicxulub impact. The ejecta material, shock quartz and spherules, although scarce, support the previous idea. In general, the results of the study of the Peñas river outcrop, endorse it as a new section of the K/Pg boundary in deep water environment, located in western Cuba and the Protocaribe, which opens new research perspectives.Downloads
References
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