CHICXULUB AND CHESAPEAKE HYPERVELOCITY EVENTS AND HYDROCARBON RESERVOIR FORMATION AND OCCURRENCE- CANTRELL OIL FIELD CAMPECHE OFFSHORE MEXICO

The Cantarell oil field, offshore Campeche, Mexico is located 370 km from the Chicxulub impact The structure is a complex anticline dissected by northwestward striking faults formed during Oligocene-Miocene and further, faulting during Pliocene-Pleistocene, providing fracturing and high permeability Oil production cumulative for Cantarell (2000) was approximately 7,861 billion barrels of crude oil.

The Chicxulub (66mya) impact event with the calculated instantaneous energy introduced into plate tectonics at a 150 km radius crater and a 12 km bolide impact at 30km/km second velocity and a10 percent grounded energy transference of 10 to the 23rd joules. A 10 to the 9th times joules greater than the daily plate tectonic energy generated of Earth (Epstein and Herman,2024, 2025). The Chicxulub impact may have significantly affected the plate motion, thus causing rotations by pinning the impact zone crust to the asthenosphere The Chesapeake impact during the Eocene (37 mya) may have further enhanced plate tectonic motion in the Carribean and Southern Mexico from seismic generated shock waves off the lower mantle (2600km).

Deposition of the Upper Cretaceous calcareous breccias within the Campeche Basin and surrounding areas consist of;1) a massive collapse of platform margin triggered by the Chicxulub impact event, and 2) a base of slope talus deposit resulted from major slumping of carbonate platform . The main oil producing zone consists of K/P boundary layers; 1) a 300m thick coarse-grained Breccia, 2)a 10-20m thick medium to fine grained carbonate Breccia,and a 3) 25-30 m thick sand and silt of mostly ejecta (Murillo-Munenton et al.,2002)

The primary hydrocarbon source rocks are Upper Jurassic Tithonian and Oxfordian age, entered the oil window during the Middle Eocene at 100 degrees centigrade (Hanson et al,2023), coinciding with the Chesapeake impact event. Analysis of the cores (Murillo-Muenenton et al., 2002 )have suggested mesodiagenetic dolomitization prior to uplift. The inorganic and organic simultaneous chemical reactions and associated dolomitization with hydrocarbon generation and expulsion have been widely attributed to reservoirs worldwide (Epstein,2020,2023, Epstein et al., 2019, 2020, 2023).