he Chicxulub Science Museum is located in the central sector of the Parque Cientifico y Tecnologico de Yucatan in Merida, Yucatan. The museum is a major component of the Chicxulub research center, dedicated to outreach, education and science communication in the Earth, life and planetary sciences.
The museum is an interactive facility that incorporates research programs on the Chicxulub asteroid impact and Earth´s evolution. It has exhibit halls on the Solar System, impact cratering, Chicxulub impact and mass extinctions and life evolution-
The museum is built around the studies of the Chicxulub crater and the End -Cretaceous mass extinction.
Chicxulub was formed ~66 million years ago by an asteroid impact on the Yucatan carbonate platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The impact excavated a deep cavity into the crust, with ejection of large volumes of fragmented rocks and dust that spread at the top of the atmosphere and caused global affectation of the climate and environment. The impact altered the life support system of the plant causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, marine and flying reptiles, ammonites, foraminifera and about ~76 % of species on continents and oceans. The globally distributed impact ejecta is the marker horizon for the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary.
The museum has areas for meetings, for youngsters, temporary exhibits, shops and workshop.
