Scientists Dug Into the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Crater and Uncover a Surprising Find

For a very long time, around 230 million years to be exact, huge and powerful dinosaurs were the leaders of our earth. These magnificent creatures, like the plant-eating brontosaurus with its long neck and the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex with deadly hunting skills, roamed the planet freely. However, about 66 million years ago, a major disaster happened that transformed the world as we knew it. Since then, the job of scientists has been to figure out what exactly happened in that catastrophic event.

Scientists made an astonishing discovery about the catastrophic day that dinosaurs went extinct after extensive study of the Chicxulub Crater. This groundbreaking discovery drastically alters what we previously believed concerning the events of that fateful day.

The Asteroid

For countless eons, a massive asteroid has been swirling around in the vast ocean of space, nestled in an orbit somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. While this was happening, our delicate Earth was teeming with life, growing and blossoming.

An event from the cosmos dislodged a massive asteroid, throwing it off its orbit and causing it to hurtle towards Earth at a frightening speed of 45,000 miles per hour. It crashed into a sulfur shelf located in what is now commonly referred to as the Gulf of Mexico, creating catastrophic damage all over the planet. The demise of the dinosaurs was sealed. Yet, the burning questions remain: why and how did they vanish, and what was the origin of the terrifying space rock?

Asteroid Origins

There’s a thought that suggests the asteroid might have come into existence when a big piece of space stone, originally part of a debris cloud called the Oort Cloud, was pushed off its path due to the strong pull of Jupiter’s gravity.

The large comet, known as a sun-grazer, shattered into several fragments as it journeyed around the sun. This made it more probable statistically that it would hit the Earth. Lucky for us, these types of collisions only occur about once in every 250 to 730 million years. Nonetheless, when they do happen, the consequences are immensely destructive.

The Crater

When the space rock crashed into our planet, it carved a massive hole roughly 110 miles wide and 12 miles deep. This colossal impact was so powerful that it cracked the Earth down to its stony insides, right into the mantle.

The massive hole rapidly refilled with rocks and dirt, forming a striking, vast circle of mountain peaks that still exist today at the periphery. The fallout from the mighty collision blanketed the whole planet. Yet, it wasn’t the only thing that this huge bump caused.

The Impact

In the wake of the strike, the aftermath rippled across the globe. Earthquakes of magnitude 12 rocked the surrounding area of the impact, causing cliffs to crumble and fall into the ocean. The whole of North America was lashed by winds as strong as hurricanes, literally vaporizing everything they swept across.

In a matter of hours, waves as big as tsunamis hammered the shoreline. Raging fires took over, changing the green coverage of Earth into a dense layer of smoky residue. Rain, as acidic as vinegar, poured from the heavens above. The world’s scaly creatures found themselves in the middle of a catastrophic event. Their lives were now a battle for survival; death seemed inevitable in this apocalyptic condition.