Soraya Alfred

This is my research! I’m so glad you enjoyed the talk and it was the inspiration for this amazing illustration! Thank you so much 😊

A photograph of a sketch of Soraya Alfred’s talk at LPSC 2025. The sketch is in my small conference notebook. and there are pens/pencils below it for scale. The sketch is dominated on the left side of the page with a perspective view of the Chicxulub impact crater. On the left side you see the impact happening, with a big ejecta blanket rocketing into the sky. On the right side you see the crater some time later: a complex crater with a peak ring, partially filled by water. Below that sketch is a little sketch of a T rex, “about to have a bad day.” To the right is a cross section of the “after” case for Chicxulub, showing a cross section of the peak ring structure, colored by temperature (yellow = hot, blue = cold). In the downwarped sediment layers, there are streamlines (in green/blue) showing that fluid is brought from the warm depths up to the surface, and back down. This supports ecosystems at depth below the surface.

Soraya Alfred—Impacts aren’t all bad! Impacts, like Chicxulub, can generate porosity, permeability, heat, and fluid flow that creates self-sustaining subsurface ecosystems. #LPSC2025