We Finally Know How Much the Dino-Killing Asteroid Reshaped Earth

[Judi Lynn]

We Finally Know How Much the Dino-Killing Asteroid Reshaped Earth

The impact that wiped out large dinosaurs also dumped hundreds of feet of debris in the ocean off the Yucatán peninsula

By Jane Palmer
smithsonian.com
3 hours ago

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.

“It is truly a tree ring for the Earth, because how we define time geologically is by extinction events,” says Sean Gulick of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in Austin. “Everywhere on Earth this layer marks exactly the time when the mass extinction happened.”

More:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/we-finally-know-how-much-dino-killing-asteroid-reshaped-earth-180958222/#mdFvWlPK4vkjWxVS.99

[longship]

1. Nonsense! Everybody knows what killed off the dinosaurs!

R&K

[Judi Lynn]

2. Right! They used to hide behind mountains so no one could see them! n/t

[Mbrow]

3. I miss Gary!

[Baobab]

4. A few years ago I read an interesting article on chevrons of displaced sea floor material that point

to impact craters that caused massive tsunamis.. there are a surprisingly large number of them. Gogle Earth now makes it possible to find them fairly easily if you know what to look for..

[Judi Lynn]

5. Really! It makes sense, considering how much surface is covered by water, doesn't it?

Thanks for giving us something to ponder.

Welcome to D.U., Baobab.

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[SCantiGOP]

6. Trees look like depictions

Of LSD-altered reality.