Dinosaurs died out within hours, new study suggests
Researchers say superheated rock vapor and fiery spherules may have ignited global wildfires and killed many dinosaurs within hours.
- New research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences suggests the 66 million-year-old Chicxulub asteroid impact killed terrestrial life within hours, creating a thick, worldwide dust blanket that intensified surface heat.
- The Chicxulub asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, vaporizing massive amounts of rock that condensed into tiny "spherules" generating an intense heat pulse as they fell back to Earth's surface.
- Purdue University planetary scientist Brandon Johnson found the dust layer magnified surface heat by 3.5 times, exposing organisms to 17 times the lethal dose of radiation for humans, causing fatal heat stroke.
- Johnson explained the team's findings suggest rapid mass extinction, noting the "flash-cooked" scenario contrasts with alternative theories crediting a long-term post-impact winter for dinosaur extinction.
- University College London paleontologist Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, uninvolved in the study, said researchers could eventually find a record of global wildfires, though "we just don't have it so far.
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Dinosaurs were NOT wiped out by asteroid impact say scientists in bombshell new study
Dinosaurs were not wiped out by a catastrophic asteroid impact on Earth, scientists have claimed in a bombshell new study. Instead, they were "charbroiled" in an "oven" left in the meteor's wake, the study says. It has long been believed that dinosaurs were wiped out after an Everest-sized asteroid smashed into Earth at around 45,000mph, which is thought to have destroyed everything within a 900-mile radius. However, a team of Purdue University …
The fall of Chicxulub's asteroid 66 million years ago would have turned the Earth's surface into a boiler.What scientists at Purdue University now say.
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid about 10 kilometers wide and the approximate size of Mount Everest struck the Earth near where the Yucatan peninsula is today, in Mexico. The brutal impact, which created the crater of Chicxulub, changed life on the planet forever, causing the extinction of three quarters of all living species, including most dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs, who dominated the planet for tens of millions of years, were able to disappear in hours. The impact of the asteroid some 66 million years ago turned the Earth into a hell on its first day. But the cataclysm specialists do not agree on what happened next. For some, the energy released by the crash caused a series of cataclysms all over the planet (global fires, megatsunamis...) that took most of the earth’s life ahead. For others, …
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