Page 83 - DINOSOUR ATLAS

global destruction
The gas and searing hot debris hurled into the
sky by the impact of a giant asteroid would have
caused months of darkness, acid rain, and global
wildfires. Plant life was destroyed, and dinosaurs
like these Triceratops would have starved.

Death of the Dinosaurs

Debris plume rose high
The dinosaurs flourished for 165 million years. But then, some 65 million years ago, into space, enveloped
they seem to have died out almost overnight. In reality, this mass extinction may the planet, and was
have taken place over several thousand years, which is no more than an eventually deposited in
a thin layer around the
instant in geological time. Yet there is evidence that the main agent of whole world
their destruction was an asteroid impact so devastating that it
wrecked the global ecosystem within a few days. Some animals
survived the cataclysm, but the giant dinosaurs were wiped out.

, impact zone
In 1990 a huge impact crater was
discovered at Chicxulub on the
coast of Yucatán, Mexico. It dates
from 65 million years ago, and since
it is 110 miles (180 km) across, it
must have been made by an asteroid
big enough to cause global catastrophe.

moment of impact .
The size of the Chicxulub crater indicates that it was made by an asteroid
some 6 miles (10 km) across, which struck the Earth at a speed of
about 62,000 mph (100,000 kph). The impact caused a
colossal explosion that instantly vaporized the
asteroid, hurling a vast plume of hot gas
and debris into the atmosphere.
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