A low-temperature, meteoric water-dominated origin for smectitic clay minerals in the Chicxulub impact crater upper peak ring, as inferred from their oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions

The peak-ring of the 66 Ma, ~180 km Chicxulub impact structure in the northern Yucatán peninsula and southern Gulf of Mexico was sampled during the International Ocean Discovery Program and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (IODP–ICDP) Expedition 364 at Site M0077 (21.45° N, 89.95° W). Secondary clay minerals are pervasive throughout the upper peak-ring lithologies as a product of ubiquitous altered glass present throughout the impact melt and melt-bearing breccia sequence. Here we present the first detailed study of the clay mineralogy (microprobe, pXRD, spectral reflectance from 350 to 2500 nm) and isotope geochemistry (δ2H and δ18O) of the <0.2 μm size-fraction from upper peak-ring lithologies. The clay mineralogy is dominated by smectitic clay minerals, whose composition varies with stratigraphic position. Trioctahedral MgFe smectite (var. saponite) is most common in Units or Subunits 2A, 2C, 3 and 4, while a section of Subunit 2B contains a more dioctahedral, Al-rich smectite. Higher porosity regions of the lower to mid, dioctahedral smectite-dominated intervals have higher δ18O (+14.2 to +18.6‰) whereas intervals dominated by trioctahedral smectite have lower δ18O (+10.4 to +14.1‰). The range of smectite δ2H (−105 to −87‰), in comparison to that of oxygen isotopes, is proportionally much less variable and unrelated to smectite mineralogy. When combined, the oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions of the smectitic clay minerals suggest low temperature (~20 to 50 °C) formation from meteoric water-dominated fluids. The lower end of this temperature range is below current ambient conditions, which conceivably could suggest smectite formation before much of the overlying sedimentary rocks were deposited (~56 Ma?). Calculated temperatures are generally lower than those associated with impact-generated hydrothermal alteration.