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Scientists have put forward a new version about the main reason for the extinction of dinosaurs
Miscellaneous / / November 03, 2023
Just an asteroid strike wouldn't be enough. The long-term consequences of the cataclysm are much more important.
About 66 million years ago, an asteroid hitting Earth caused a mass extinction of 75% of species, including non-avian dinosaurs. The very “mechanism of destruction” of living beings has caused controversy among scientists for decades: forest fires, volcanic eruptions and even huge tsunamis were considered the culprits. Now a new version has appeared - dust.
IN article for the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers from Belgium claim that when studying the mechanisms, launched by the impact, too little attention has been paid to the role of the trillions of tons of dust kicked up in sky.
Soot, sulfur and tiny rock particles circulating in the atmosphere for years can block the sun and contribute to a global winter that kills vegetation. And this leads to disruption of food chains and devastating consequences for all animals.
To further study the role of various factors, scientists tried to simulate the ancient climate and the consequences of the asteroid impact. To do this, they used data from the analysis of small particles extracted from the place where the layer of dust formed as a result of the impact of the asteroid settled.
The impact itself left behind a huge Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula, and a layer of dust dating back to the appropriate age was recovered in North Dakota, USA.
And according to modeling results, dust from crushed granite and other rocks found in the Dakotas could remain in the atmosphere for up to 15 years after being released into the sky. By blocking the sun's rays, it could simply stop photosynthesis for almost two years and cool the planet by 15°C.
It was dust that most likely caused the latest mass extinction, summed up Sem Berk Senel, a researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels.
Steve Brusatte, Professor of Paleontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh, added:
It was the largest asteroid to hit Earth in the last half-billion years, and it exploded with the force of more than a billion nuclear bombs combined. But that's not what actually killed the dinosaurs and the 75% of other species that went extinct.
What really led to their demise was what happened next, when the dust and dirt from the asteroid impact went into the atmosphere and blotted out the sun. For several years the Earth became dark and cold. The asteroid didn't kill all the dinosaurs at once, but it did trigger a war of attrition that killed three-quarters of all species.
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