The mystery of what killed the dinosaurs has largely been solved. An asteroid that crashed into what is now known as the Chicxulub crater wrought enormous harm to the entirety of Earth. But what happened afterwards? Did the dinosaurs get killed off by the dawning of an ice age? Turns out they very easily may not have lived to see that happen.
Dinosaurs and Disaster
New research and evidence suggest that the mass extinction event that followed this impact likely killed the dinosaurs in a matter of hours. How does something like that happen? Obviously, the impact itself would have killed anything and everything within a certain vicinity. It’s estimated that the asteroid impact was a billion times stronger than that of an atomic bomb, but the force of that impact had greater implications.
Superheated rock was set to be jettisoned from the crater and rained down upon parts of the planet. Forested areas would have been set ablaze by this. The heat, smoke, and added debris from the fire would obviously send even more matter into the atmosphere. Making matters even worse, though, is the “rock vapor” that was created. That is to say, not all the earthy, rocky substance that the asteroid smashed into was ejected as whole material. A substantial amount was vaporized and went into the air too.
Is it Hot in Here?
So, now we have rock vapor in the atmosphere combined with massive, widespread fires. The combination of all of this effectively created a layer of atmospheric insulation that superheated everything below. In fact, it may have been so bad that the planet would’ve superheated itself to the elimination of life within a couple of hours.
Of course, this is all theory cultivated by evidence and research. It’s not as if we can know this for certain. It does, however, paint an extremely vivid and horrific picture of what happened on that fateful day.
