“Demon of the Ticks”: dinosaurs had no chance against this meteorite (9 photos)

“Demon of Ticks”, Chicxulub - this is the name in the Mayan language for the impact crater, which was left after its landing by a large meteorite that fell to Earth approximately 66 million years ago and killed the former owners of our planet - the dinosaurs.





Why were the consequences of this fall so fatal? Could things have been different?



Green forests in which life was in full swing. Many species of animals that we will never see again. A world full of colorful vegetation. All this perished and turned into a dead icy desert due to a terrible catastrophe. Here's what planetary scientist Daniel Durda from the Colorado Research Institute said: “In a few minutes or even hours, a lush and vibrant world turned into a devastated one. Especially in the area of thousands of square kilometers around the impact site, everything was completely destroyed.”





About the crash site

Geologists found the site of the meteorite fall - a crater with a diameter of 180 km on the Yutacan Peninsula in Mexico in 1978, quite by accident during geophysical research at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico: a team of researchers discovered an underwater arc 70 km long in the shape of a ring, and the continuation of this arc was noticed on land, in the north-west of the peninsula. Together the arcs form a circle with a diameter of 180 km. The impact origin of this crater was proven by the gravitational anomaly inside the ring-shaped structure, as well as by the presence of rocks characteristic only of impact-explosive rock formation; this conclusion was also confirmed by chemical studies of soils and detailed satellite imaging of the area.



What was the space killer like?

The diameter of this “uninvited guest” was approximately 15 km, and at the time of its collision with the Earth, its speed was 60,000 km/h and it flew at an angle of 60 degrees to the surface, which it penetrated approximately 30 km. The crater spread over 120 km - it formed immediately after the impact, then collapsed and expanded to about 200 km. Now its borders are “hidden” under bottom sediments.



This is destiny!

It seems as if this asteroid was specially directed towards the Earth with the goal of erasing the entire existing world from its face, so that something new would then arise here. Here are some interesting facts:

1. The angle of incidence is too steep. Because of this, a huge amount of dust, carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds rose into the air. If the angle of incidence had been, for example, 15 degrees, the consequences would not have been so catastrophic. The rising dust obscured the sun, and due to lack of light the plants died. The herbivorous dinosaurs had nothing to eat, and after them the predators fell ill. And the climate in those days was much milder and warmer than it is now. The sun disappeared, and it became very cold on Earth, which heat-loving plants and animals also did not tolerate (the temperature dropped by about 26 degrees). But this is not all the troubles that such an angle of incidence caused: this blow was supposed to cause a powerful tsunami - the waves would rise 50-100 m and rush deep into the continents, mercilessly washing away everything in their path. The high-temperature shock wave would cause forest fires around the world, meaning the air would also be poisoned with soot and carbon monoxide.



2. The size of the meteorite is very impressive. Even if a meteorite with a diameter of 300 meters fell, it would destroy a large city like Moscow. And here it’s already 15 km! According to computer modeling, 15 trillion tons of soot and ash were thrown into the air, and this collision also awakened volcanoes with the emergence of a powerful seismic wave: at the opposite point from the impact, abundant outpourings of lava began, which made the Earth even more like a real hell.



3. The crash site was very “successful”: drilling wells in the crater showed that the asteroid landed in a deposit of gypsum stone. The explosion partially vaporized it, sending billions of tons of sulfate dust and sulfur gases into the atmosphere - the very substances that volcanoes produce. Any volcano would be jealous here!

Thus, the energy generated from this collision is equal to approximately 10 billion atomic bombs, similar to the one dropped on Hiroshima.



Atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima

Is it possible to avoid such a collision now?

Surely you are interested in the answer to this question, because the reader understands that if such an event happens again, there will be nothing left of us either. According to modern science, over the past 250 million years there have been 9 mass extinctions of living organisms with an average interval of 30 million years. These disasters can be associated with the fall of large asteroids or comets to Earth. Even small “pebbles” can harm the operation of near-Earth satellites, and larger ones can also pierce the skin of a spacecraft.



To protect the Earth from “uninvited guests”, a service for constant monitoring of all celestial objects was organized. At large observatories, robotic telescopes monitor the sky. Most observatories in the world participate in this program, and all data is constantly monitored, because earthlings understand that we must protect our only home.