(Table 1) Abundance of shocked quartz in K/T boundary sediments from DSDP Site 91-596

Sediments from the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 596 record accumulation of pelagic clays at about lat 45°S,in the center of the ancestral South Pacific. The K/T boundary in this region is characterized by oxidized, thoroughly bioturbated sediments containing large amounts of Ir and relict high-pressure and high-temperature mineral phases. The net Ir fluence (320 ng/cm**2) is among the largest on Earth, and the number of shocked quartz grains >30 µm in size (~1800/cm**2) exceeds that in all localities outside of North America.