In a blink of an eye

In a blink of an eye, the dinos and significant others bought the farm back in the day.

The massive Chicxulub impact – the most cataclysmic event known to have befallen life on Earth – is widely held responsible for the end of the dinosaurs. This single event toppled the prehistoric lizards from the top of the food chain and allowed mammals to inherit the Earth.

Of course, not only dinosaurs were hit by this awesome event, a plethora of animals were wiped out. The fossil find by the KU palaeontologists shows a snapshot of this vibrant ecosystem.

“A tangled mass of freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, trees, branches, logs, marine ammonites and other marine creatures was all packed into this layer by the inland-directed surge,” said DePalma.

“Timing of the incoming ejecta spherules matched the calculated arrival times of seismic waves from the impact, suggesting that the impact could very well have triggered the surge.”

This wasn’t a tsunami that arrived after the impact – but a seismic surge that pushed the waters into chaos.

“A tsunami would have taken at least 17 or more hours to reach the site from the crater, but seismic waves - and a subsequent surge - would have reached it in tens of minutes,” said DePalma.

Where & when the astroid struck earth.

The Chicxulub impact event was an ~100 million megaton blast that devastated the Gulf of Mexico region. 

The blast generated a core of superheated plasma in excess of 10,000 degrees.  Although that thermal pulse would have been relatively short-lived, a handful of minutes, it would have been lethal for nearby life. 

The Chicxulub Impact event produced a shock wave and air blast that radiated across the seas, over coastlines, and deep into the continental interior.  Winds far in excess of 1000 kilometers per hour were possible near the impact site, although they decreased with distance from the impact site.  The pressure pulse and winds would have scoured soils and shredded vegetation and any animals living in nearby ecosystems.  An initial estimate of the area damaged by an air blast was a radius 1500 kilometers.  There are several factors that can affect this estimate, so the uncertainty might be better reflected in a range of radii from ~900 to ~1800 km.  The travel times are quite short, so this effect would have occurred in advance of any falling debris ejected from the Chicxulub crater.  

Intense without question.