Mysterious Fossils from the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater and Beyond

Photo of fossil algae (dinocyst). Specimen is about 90 micrometers across.The largest known impact crater in the U.S. lies buried beneath the Virginia Coastal Plain. The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact event caused a wide variety of distinctive features, such as fossil algae (dinocysts) that were found in drilled cores from hundreds to thousands of feet below the surface. The study of distinctive preservational features, whether related to the crater or not, leads to more questions than answers. How was a specific feature formed? How did it come to be preserved in the fossil record?