Chicxulub Pueblo

Chicxulub Pueblo
Municipal Seat
Chicxulub Pueblo
Coordinates: 21°8′11″N 89°31′0″W / 21.13639°N 89.51667°W / 21.13639; -89.51667
Country Mexico
StateYucatán
MunicipalityChicxulub Pueblo
Elevation
8 m (26 ft)
Population
 (2010)
  Total
4,080
Time zoneUTC−6 (Central Standard Time)
  Summer (DST)UTC−5 (Central Daylight Time)
Postal code
97340
Area code985
INEGI code310200001

Chicxulub Pueblo (Mayan pronunciation: [tʃʼikʃuluɓ] Ch’ik Xulub) is a town, and surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Yucatán.

At the census of 2010, the town had a population of 4,080 people.

Chicxulub is most famous for being near the geographic center of the Chicxulub crater, an impact crater discovered by geologists on the Yucatán Peninsula and extending into the ocean. It was created by the impact some 66 million years ago of the Chicxulub impactor, an asteroid or comet which caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which led to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs and other animals that dominated the Mesozoic. The coastal village (or puerto) of Chicxulub, in the neighboring municipality of Progreso, lies almost exactly on the geographic center of the crater.

The name Chicxulub is from the Yucatec Maya language meaning 'the devil's flea'.