For two particularly harsh years after the dinosaur-killing asteroid slammed into Earth,gay albino sex videos the world darkened and temperatures plummeted.
Ultimately, the food web collapsed, wiping out starved terrestrial dinosaurs.
New research, published in the science journal Nature Geoscience, reveals a detailed view of what transpired after the roughly six-mile-wide rock collided with our planet. The impact hit around the Yucatan Peninsula, ejecting a nasty brew of soot, sulphur gases, and extremely fine dust into the atmosphere. Crucially, scientists found this dust proved extremely potent in blocking sunlight.
A long, callous winter, with vastly reduced light for some two years, followed.
"That shuts down photosynthesis. And breaks down the food chain," David Fastovsky, a professor emeritus in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island who has researched the dinosaur extinction, told Mashable. Fastovsky had no involvement in the new study.
SEE ALSO: If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll knowIn a well-known site that preserved fallout from the asteroid impact, the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota, the researchers found a high abundance of these fine dust particles in the pinkish, uppermost layer where the last of the dust settled. Then they simulated, using advanced climate models, how such a high amount of dust would have behaved in the lofty skies. Global effects persisted for well over a decade, though they were greatest for the first couple years. It wasn't just dark, but also cold.
"The new paleoclimate simulations show that such a plume of micrometric silicate dust could have remained in the atmosphere for up to 15 years after the event, contributing to global cooling of the Earth’s surface by as much as 15 °C [27 degrees Fahrenheit] in the initial aftermath of the impact," Cem Berk Senel, a scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium who led the research, said in a statement.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
It takes the largest class of asteroid — a half-mile-wide or bigger — to potentially trigger such a worldwide effect. "To shut down an entire global ecosystem is truly astounding," Fastovsky noted.
"To shut down an entire global ecosystem is truly astounding."
This scale of rock hits Earth every 100 million years or so. Fortunately, astronomers are vigilantly scanning Earth's solar system neighborhood for big asteroids, and have found no known threats of collision for the next century, and the likelihood of an impact in the next 1,000 years is exceedingly low. (Smaller asteroids, which are more common, hit more frequently: On average, a car-sized asteroid explodes in our skies each year, while impacts by objects around 460 feet in diameter occur every 10,000 to 20,000 years.)
The latest research adds to a preponderance of evidence that an asteroid collision triggered the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event, also known as the K-T event, 66 million years ago. (Some argue that potent, long-term volcanism in what's now India could have driven the extinction.) Ultimately, some 75 percent of Earth's species went extinct. The new study, pointing at the outsized role that dust played in collapsing the food web, fills in more of the picture of what happened so long ago. "It's another step," Fastovsky said.
Some life, of course, persevered. Some organisms could hibernate, some seeds could stay dormant. And some dinosaurs — avian species — survived, too. These birds, which have since evolved over millions of years, persisted, in part because they could gobble many different types of food (unlike, say, many carnivores).
Today, around 6,400 species of mammals roam Earth. Yet over 10,000 bird species inhabit the planet.
"You're still living in the age of dinosaurs," Fastovsky marveled.
Record heat may have led to record home runs in World Series Game 2'Simpsons' fans notice Milhouse watching an NBA gameAnother actress describes in horrific detail alleged rape committed by Harvey WeinsteinWhole Foods now makes less money, but Amazon doesn't care'Super Mario Odyssey' comes out this Friday and, FYI, it has a twoNissan unveils its new IMx allAir Force tweets that Santa isn't real, will receive coal this yearUber now lets you add multiple stops to your tripVisitors to trendy neonApple's iPhone X is now available for pre3 women of color sue Uber over gender and raceTeaching kids about sex ed is important for preventing sexual violenceThis comment from the New York Times deserves a journalism awardIt's important to know what kind of boss you should work forLonely Planet's 2018 best cities in the world list polarises locals'Blue Planet II' clip shows fish jumping out of water to swallow birdsApple relaxed Face ID specs to speed iPhone X production, says reportIndia overtakes the U.S. to become world's second largest smartphone marketLonely Planet's 2018 best cities in the world list polarises localsResearchers may have found an interstellar comet in our solar system NSA recommends White House end spying program leaked by Snowden Malala Yousafzai launched a YouTube series all about inspiring girls Music fans have plenty of reasons to love Québec City this summer Hillary Clinton in first speech since conceding says: 'Never, ever give up' Why we can't trust Bran or the Three More families can catch a discount Lyft ride to a grocery store Facebook may soften political ad rules for EU election Mark Zuckerberg might not be untouchable after all Trump gets ghosted by New Zealand PM because earthquakes will do that 'Not on our campus': American students stand up against Trump White nationalists: Not handling their Twitter apocalypse well People can't stop lining up their faces with money and it's kind of great Elon Musk banks on his self How to turn 'Mortal Kombat 11' into the best drinking game ever Why Captain America is (probably) a virgin Watch young Spice Girls sledge dude for sexism 'cos girl power will never die The power of public shaming in Trump's America Every Kohl's store to accept your Amazon returns Microsoft Paint won't be banished to oblivion—for now iFixit Samsung Galaxy Fold teardown reveals its flawed design
0.9013s , 10521.9609375 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【gay albino sex videos】,Exquisite Information Network