The relative amounts of heavy and light isotopes of carbon and oxygen in these carbonates are analyzed to determine if fractionation due to vaporization has occurred. Isotopes fractionate when they change states, such as going from a solid to a gas. For Chicxulub, when the target material was vaporized by the heat of the impact, the carbon dioxide vapors released should have contained higher concentrations of the lighter carbon and oxygen isotopes, with the heavier isotopes remaining behind in the solid ejecta. This signature may have been captured in the rocks at Albion Island if some of the gases produced by the impact condensed from the vapor plume. We did collect lots of samples and gained a greater respect for nature and the beauty of the lucky survivors of that dark episode 65 million years ago.
Geologists use fossils as time markers in the geologic record.
We left Belize with more questions than answers, as is often the case in the scientific process of discovery. No single discipline holds the answers to this puzzle, and only a cooperative effort will bring about a complete understanding. The research for the 1995 Belize expedition was supported by the Planetary Society and the NASA Exobiology Program. Geology Stratigraphy Mineralogy Originally published The Planetary Report, vol. The Planetairy Socety.