PI plans to drill the K-T transition in the Brazos River area in order to recover a series of cores that span the late Maastrichtian and early Paleocene, including the K-T boundary horizon, the Iridium layer and the Chicxulub event strata at a minimal cost of $15,000. The Brazos River sequence can provide a critical source of data that has the potential to solve the current controversy over the age of the Chicxulub impact, as well as the nature of the mass extinction in the marine realm. Scientific analyses will be carried out by an international team led by GK and including scientists from the US, France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland, and will include microfossil biostratigraphies (foraminifera, nannofossils, palynomorphs), sequence stratigraphy, mineralogy, stable isotopes, trace elements, PGEs and Iridium analysis. These studies will have a broad impact on K-T research and will provide one of the most complete and comprehensive datasets for the K-T transition thanks to the unparalelled preservation of carbonate in these sediments.
