One of the most intriguing science class mysteries finally has a definitive answer. The extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an enormous asteroid smashing into Earth. As of Thursday, science is convinced that the asteroid theory is true.
A panel of 41 specialists from around the globe reviewed twenty years worth of research in an attempt to finally confirm the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction. This catastrophic moment 65 million years ago didn’t just kill off the dinosaurs – it wiped out more than half of all species on the planet at the time.
Science has been split for decades over the cause of this extinction. The options? An asteroid collision or volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India where there were multiple super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years. But this new study, published in the Journal of Science, has finally made a conclusive judgment that a nine mile wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the direct cause of the KT extinction event. “We now have great confidence that an asteroid was the cause of the KT extinction. This triggered large-scale fires, earthquakes measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and continental landslides, which created tsunamis,” said Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London, a co-author of the review. The force of the asteroid is said to have been a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
According to Morgan, the “final nail in the coffin for the dinosaurs” came when debris from the blast filled the atmosphere, throwing the planet into darkness and causing a global winter. This perpetual winter’s night changed the environment of the planet so violently that the dinosaurs, and a great many of the other animals that shared their world, could not hope to survive.
