Speaker Series for Teachers: How Ocean Drilling Records Help Study the Chicxulub Impact and Mass Extinction

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

5–6 pm

Workers in safety gear in a crowded work environment. Technical equipment is arrayed on the floor, in boxes and on walls.
Workers check equipment in the crowded interior of an ocean drilling platform.
Nur Schuba

Join us for a talk about how ocean drilling offers insights into Earth’s past with Chris Lowery, research associate professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

Scientific ocean drilling has been instrumental in the study of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction since the early days of the impact hypothesis. 

Multiple sites around the world provide key records of extinction and recovery, and accompanying changes to the ways the ocean cycles nutrients. In 2017, International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, providing the first records of impact processes and the recovery of life at ground zero of the extinction event. 

In this talk, Lowery will use Expedition 364 to talk about the process of ocean drilling science and what drilling in the crater can tell us about the impact event. He will also discuss ocean drilling records of the impact and extinction in the Gulf of Mexico and across the globe.

This event is free. One hour of CTLE credit is available.