Posted on 03/22/2016 10:32:51 AM PDT by JimSEA
More than 65 million years ago, a six-mile wide asteroid smashed into Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, triggering earthquakes, tsunamis and an explosion of debris that blanketed the Earth in layers of dust and sediment.
Now analysis of commercial oil drilling data—denied to the academic community until recently—offers the first detailed look at how the Chicxulub impact reshaped the Gulf of Mexico. Figuring out what happened after these types of impacts gives researchers a better idea of how they redistribute geological material around the world. It also gives scientists an idea of what to expect if another such impact were to occur now.
The Chicxulub impact, which wiped out large dinosaurs and giant marine reptiles, created a global layer of debris that is now part of the geologic record. Geologists refer to this layer as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, because it marks the switch between these two geologic time periods.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/we-finally-know-how-much-dino-killing-asteroid-reshaped-earth-180958222/#clK5ID5fmjUoGgkF.99 Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
While the graphic is spectacular, it is misleading.
The real impactor was only 6.5 miles in diameter, the one in the graphic is several hundred miles from scaling with the earth below.
It happened once, it will happen again... (in the voice of Charlton Heston from the movie Armageddon)
Man-Made Global Warming ...not so much.
Galactic Collision --- Now you got my attention!
The ‘what to expect if it happens again’ .. pretty funny.
The TX Hill Country is one big reminder of what the asteroid caused.. fascinating but terrifying to contemplate.
Well,if another such impact occurs scientists can expect,among other things,that 99.9% of the humans alive at the moment before impact will be dead within a month.
Is it true that some speculate this meteor impact is what imparted the “wobble” to Earth’s axis?
Climate change.
I’ve heard the idea but I’m not aware of its status today.
Cool Story but False
They were all dead long before the meteor hit (if it was actually one).
A rock that size would knock us off our orbital path, freezing or frying us prretty quick... no recovery.
So a meteor is to blame for daylight saving time?
So we can blame the asteroid for Austin?
Stop being a buzz kill! /s
No... misquitos. Too many foreign statesmen and biz guys were croaking from skeeter-borne diseases so they moved the capitol from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Austin. Where we still have plenty of skeeters. They live happily in desolate, frozen Alaska parts, just bigger!
A smaller version of this could happen if we have another supervolcano eruption--and we know of at least 4-5 sites around the world capable of a supervolcano eruption, including Yellowstone National Park, the huge caldera near Mammoth Mountain in California, and Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Well I’m sure glad to know ‘what to expect if it happens again’. That info will be real helpful for the few milliseconds of life remaining!
If it gets as far as the impact event, our worries are over.
It is a planet killer in the picture.
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