Study Says Chicxulub Vapor Killed Dinosaurs Within 2 Hours, Heating Earth 3.5 Times More
Updated
Updated · Popular Science · Jul 28
Study Says Chicxulub Vapor Killed Dinosaurs Within 2 Hours, Heating Earth 3.5 Times More
3 articles · Updated · Popular Science · Jul 28
Summary
A new Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences study says the Chicxulub impact may have killed most terrestrial life within 1 to 2 hours, not mainly through a long starvation phase.
Using impact simulations and dust data, researchers found rock vapor lofted into the atmosphere acted like an insulating blanket, heating Earth’s surface at least 3.5 times more than falling spherules alone.
The team says that heat would have been enough to kill vast numbers of animals almost instantly and ignite global fires after the 6-mile-wide asteroid struck 66 million years ago.
The same dust cloud could still fit slower extinction models, because after the initial infernos it may have blocked sunlight and warmth for years or decades.
Evidence for worldwide wildfires remains incomplete—most traces are in North America—so the authors and outside scientists say more data is needed to confirm a truly global burn.