The moat of the 85-km-diameter and 35.3-Ma-old Chesapeake Bay impact structure (USA) was drilled at Eyreville Farm in 2005-2006 as part of an International Continental Scientifi c Drilling Program (ICDP)-U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) drilling project. The Eyreville drilling penetrated postimpact sediments and impactites, as well as crystalline basement-derived material, to a total depth of 1766 m. We present petrographic observations on 43 samples of suevite, impact melt rock, polymict lithic impact breccia, cataclastic gneiss, and clasts in suevite, from the impact breccia section from 1397 to 1551 m depth in the Eyreville B drill core. Suevite samples have a fi ne-grained clastic matrix and contain a variety of mineral and rock clasts, including sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous lithologies.Six subunits (U1-U6, from top to bottom) are distinguished in the impact breccia section based on abundance of different clasts, melt particles, and matrix; the boundaries between the subunits are generally gradational. Sedimentary clasts are dominant in most subunits (especially in U1, but also in U3, U4, and U6). There
The Chesapeake Bay impact structure, which is 85 km in diameter and 35.5 Ma old, was drilled and cored in a joint International Continental Scientifi c Drilling Program (ICDP) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) drilling project at Eyreville Farm, Virginia, U.S.A. In the Eyreville drill core, 154 m of impact breccia were recovered from the depth interval 1397-1551 m. Major-and trace-element concentrations were determined in 75 polymict impactite samples, 10 samples of cataclastic gneiss blocks, and 24 clasts from impactites. The chemical composition of the polymict impactites does not vary much in the upper part of the section (above ~1450 m), whereas in the lower part, larger differences occur. Polymict impactites show a decrease of SiO 2 content, and slight increases of TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and Fe 2 O 3 abundances, with depth. This is in agreement with an increase of the schist/gneiss component with depth. Concentrations of siderophile elements (Co, Ni) are lower in the polymict impactites than in the
The Eyreville B core from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA, contains a lower basement-derived section (1551.19 m to 1766.32 m deep) and two megablocks of dominantly (1) amphibolite (1376.38 m to 1389.35 m deep) and (2) granite (1095.74 m to 1371.11 m deep), which are separated by an impactite succession. Metasedimentary rocks (muscovite-quartz-plagioclase-biotitegraphite ± fi brolite ± garnet ± tourmaline ± pyrite ± rutile ± pyrrhotite mica schist, hornblende-plagioclase-epidote-biotite-K-feldspar-quartz-titanite-calcite amphibolite, and vesuvianite-plagioclase-quartz-epidote calc-silicate rock) are dominant in the upper part of the lower basement-derived section, and they are intruded*
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.