Photo: NASA

Imagine such a picture. You went out on the porch of the house in the evening, raised your head up and noticed a small luminous dot in the night sky. This point, as it approached the surface of the Earth, grew larger and larger until you realized that the size of this point did not less city Moscow. Then there is a deafening rumble, an explosion, earthquakes and dust, which will cover the Earth with a dark veil from the sun's rays for many years. Such cataclysms in the history of the Earth have occurred more than once, it is with them that scientists associate the death of dinosaurs and other organisms of our planet. Environmental Graffiti, in addition to rankings , and , has published a ranking of the biggest "Earth scars" caused by asteroid impacts.

10. Barringer Crater in Arizona, USA

Approximately 49,000 years ago, an iron-nickel meteorite with a diameter of about 46 meters and a mass of about 300,000 tons flying at a speed of about 18 kilometers per second "landed" in Arizona. The force of the explosion was equivalent to the force of an explosion of 20 million tons of TNT, from such a monstrous explosion a crater was formed with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers (26 times the diameter of the meteorite itself), a depth of 75 meters and a shaft encircling the funnel, 45 meters high. The crater bears the name of mining engineer Daniel Barringer, who first discovered it. This crater is still the property of his family. This scar on the face of our planet is also known as Meteor Crater, Raccoon Butte and Devil Canyon.

9. Bosumtwi, Ghana

30 kilometers southeast of Kumasi, on the perfectly flat South African shield, is the only lake in the country, Bosumtwi. This lake was formed by the fall of a meteorite 1.3 million years ago, which left behind a crater with a diameter of 10.5 kilometers. The crater gradually filled with water and turned into a lake surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. For the African Ashanti tribe living here, this lake is sacred. According to their beliefs, it is here that the souls of the dead meet with the god Tui.

This 13 km crater, also filled with water, is located near Deer Lake in Canada. This meteorite fell to Earth approximately 100 - 140 million years ago.

The meteorite that caused the Aorounga crater "landed" in the Sahara desert of northern Chad 2-300 million years ago. Such meteorites fall on our planet with a frequency of once every million years. The diameter of the meteorite was approximately 1.6 kilometers. Its fall caused the appearance on the body of our planet of a crater with a diameter of 17 kilometers. The most surprising thing is that ring-shaped formations surround the crater. Scientists suggest that they are formed by fragments of a meteorite formed during the passage of an asteroid through the dense layers of the atmosphere.

6. Gosses Bluff, Australia

Approximately 142 million years ago, an asteroid or comet with a diameter of 22 kilometers at a speed of 40 kilometers per second "kissed" our planet, almost in the center of mainland Australia. The explosion was equivalent to the explosion of 22,000 megatons of TNT. From the explosion of monstrous force, a funnel with a diameter of 24 kilometers and a depth of 5 kilometers was formed.

5. Lake Mistastin, Canada

Lake Mistastin on the Labrador Peninsula in Canada is nothing more than a trace of a meteorite fall 38 million years ago. The fall of the meteorite caused the formation of a crater with a diameter of 28 kilometers, which subsequently filled with water. In the middle of the lake formed by the fall of the meteorite, there is an island, which, apparently, was formed due to the heterogeneous structure of the fallen meteorite.

4. Clear Water Lakes, Canada

Two round craters on the Canadian Shield, now also filled with water, were formed when a meteorite collided with the Earth about 290 million years ago. The craters are located in Quebec on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. The diameter of the western crater is 32 kilometers, the eastern one is 22 kilometers. These craters, due to their "torn" edges, forming a large number of islands, are very popular with tourists.

3. Karakul, Tajikistan, CIS

The almighty Cosmos did not deprive the CIS of its attention. At an altitude of 3,900 meters above sea level, in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, not far from the border with China, there is a lake. This lake was formed in an asteroid crater with a diameter of 45 kilometers. The fall happened about 5 million years ago.

2 Manicouagan, Canada

The ring-shaped lake Manicouagan, also known as the "eye of Quebec" is located on the site of an ancient crater. This crater with a diameter of 100 km was formed approximately 212 million years ago as a result of the fall of a meteorite whose diameter was 5 kilometers. Glaciers and erosional processes have somewhat smoothed the side walls of this giant funnel.

Our rating is headed by the Mexican meteorite. This huge celestial body "descended from heaven to Earth" in the Yucatan Peninsula, near the Mexican village of Chicxulub (in the language of the ancient Mayans, "devil's tail"). The diameter of this crater is huge, about 170 kilometers. A city-sized meteorite fell approximately 65 million years ago. The force of the explosion was equivalent to the explosion of 100 teraton of TNT, which caused dramatic changes on our planet. Huge tsunami waves swept through all the oceans of the planet. powerful eruptions awakened volcanoes, along with dust, hid the surface of the Earth from the sun's rays for decades. More than 50% of the total species diversity of the planet died.
It is hard to imagine what would happen to humanity if such a meteorite fell now. Most likely, the Homo sapiens species disappeared from the face of the Earth, like dinosaurs, and if it had remained, then the level of development of human civilization would have rolled back millennia.

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Location of Chicxulub Crater (Dementia) Chicxulub Coast (Karyn Christner)

Chicxulub Crater is a large meteorite crater in the northwestern part of the Yucatan Peninsula and at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. With a diameter of about 180 km, it is one of the largest known impact craters on Earth. Chicxulub is located about half on land and half under the waters of the bay.

Due to the gigantic size of the Chicxulub crater, its existence cannot be determined by eye. Scientists discovered it only in 1978, and, quite by accident, during geophysical research at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Location of Chicxulub Crater (Dementia)

In the course of these studies, a huge underwater arc with a length of 70 km, having the shape of a semicircle, was discovered.

According to the gravitational field, scientists have found a continuation of this arc on land, in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula. Having closed, the arcs form a circle, the diameter of which is approximately 180 km.

The impact origin of the Chicxulub crater was proven by the gravity anomaly inside the ring-shaped structure, as well as by the presence of rocks characteristic only of shock-explosive rock formation. This conclusion is also confirmed by chemical studies of soils and detailed satellite imagery of the area. So there is no longer any doubt about the origin of the huge geological structure.

Consequences of a meteorite fall

It is believed that the Chicxulub crater was formed when a meteorite fell at least 10 kilometers in diameter. According to available calculations, the meteorite was moving from the southeast at a slight angle. Its speed was about 30 kilometers per second.

Chicxulub Coast (Karyn Christner)

The fall of this giant cosmic body occurred approximately 65 million years ago, at the turn of the Cretaceous and Paleogene. Its consequences were truly catastrophic and had a profound impact on the development of life on our planet.

The power of the impact of the meteorite exceeded the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by several million times.

Immediately after the fall, a huge ridge was formed surrounding the crater, the height of which could reach several thousand meters.

However, it was soon destroyed by earthquakes and other geological processes. The impact caused a powerful tsunami; it is assumed that the height of the waves was from 50 to 100 meters. The waves traveled far into the interior of the continents, demolishing everything in their path.

A shock wave has passed around the Earth several times, possessing high temperature and causing forest fires. Tectonic processes and volcanism have intensified in different parts of our planet.

As a result of numerous volcanic eruptions and burning forests, a huge amount of dust, ash, soot and gases were thrown into the Earth's atmosphere. The raised particles caused the effect of a volcanic winter, when most of the solar radiation is screened by the atmosphere and global cooling sets in.

Such drastic climate changes, together with other negative consequences of the impact, were detrimental to all life on Earth. There was not enough light for plants to carry out photosynthesis, as a result of which the oxygen content in the atmosphere was greatly reduced.

In connection with the disappearance of a significant part of the vegetation cover of our planet, animals that lacked food began to die out. It was as a result of these events that dinosaurs completely died out.

Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event

The fall of this meteorite is the most convincing cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. The version of the extraterrestrial origin of these events took place even before the discovery of the Chicxulub crater.

It was based on the anomalously high content of such a rare element as iridium in sediments that are about 65 million years old. Since a high concentration of this element was found not only in the deposits of the Yucatan Peninsula, but also in many other places on the Earth, it is possible that at that time there was meteor Rain. There are other versions, however, they are less common.

On the border of the Cretaceous and Paleogene, all dinosaurs, marine reptiles and flying pangolins that reigned on our planet in the Cretaceous period died out.

Existing ecosystems were completely destroyed. In the absence of large lizards, the evolution of mammals and birds was significantly accelerated, the biological diversity of which greatly increased in the Paleogene.

It can be assumed that other mass extinctions of species during the Phanerozoic were also caused by the falls of large meteorites.

Existing calculations show that the fall to the Earth celestial bodies of this size occur about once every hundred million years, which roughly corresponds to the time intervals between mass extinctions.

Documentary "The Fall of the Asteroid"

The ancient Chicxulub meteorite crater was discovered by accident in 1978 during a geophysical expedition organized by Pemex (Petroleum Mexican) to search for oil deposits at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Geophysicists Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield first discovered an incredibly symmetrical 70-kilometer underwater arc, then examined the gravitational map of the area and found a continuation of the arc on land - near the village of Chicxulub ("tick demon" in the Mayan language) in the northwestern part of the peninsula. Having closed, these arcs formed a circle with a diameter of about 180 km. Penfield immediately put forward a hypothesis about the impact origin of this unique geological structure: this idea was suggested by a gravitational anomaly inside the crater, samples of “impact quartz” with a compressed molecular structure and glassy tektites that he discovered, which are formed only at extreme temperatures and pressures. To scientifically prove that a meteorite with a diameter of at least 10 km fell in this place was succeeded by Alan Hildebrant, professor of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Calgary, in 1980.
Parallel to the question of the alleged fall to Earth giant meteorite on the border of the Cretaceous and Paleozoic (about 65 million years ago) were engaged in Nobel laureate in physics, Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez from the University of California, who, based on the presence of an abnormally high content of iridium (of extraterrestrial origin) in the soil layer of that period, suggested that the fall of such a meteorite could cause the extinction of dinosaurs. This version is not generally accepted, but is considered quite probable. In that rich natural disasters During the period, the Earth was subjected to a series of meteorite falls (including the meteorite that left the 24-kilometer Boltysh crater in Ukraine), but Chicxulub seemed to surpass all others in scale and consequences. The fall of the Chicxulub meteorite affected the life of the Earth more seriously than any of the strongest volcanic eruptions known today. The destructive force of his strike was millions of times greater than the force of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. A column of dust, fragments of rock, soot shot up into the sky (forests burned), hiding the sun for a long time; the shock wave went around the planet several times, causing a series of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and a tsunami 50-100 m high. Nuclear winter with acid rain, which was fatal for almost half of the species diversity, lasted several years ... Before this global catastrophe, dinosaurs, marine plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs reigned on our planet and flying pterosaurs, and after - not immediately, but in a short time, almost all of them died out (Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis), freeing up an ecological niche for mammals and birds.

Until the discovery of 1978, the neighborhood of the Mexican village of Chicxulub in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula was famous only for the abundance of ticks. The fact that it is here that a 180-kilometer meteorite crater lies half on land, half under the water of the bay is completely impossible to determine by eye. Nevertheless, the results of chemical analyzes of the soil under the strata of sedimentary rocks, the gravitational anomaly of the place and detailed shooting from space leave no doubt: a huge meteorite fell here.
Now Chicxulub crater literally from all sides, that is, from above - from space, and from below - by deep drilling, scientists are intensively exploring.
On the gravitational map, the Chicxulub meteorite impact zone looks like in general terms like two yellow-red rings on a blue-green background. On such maps, the gradation from cold to warm colors means an increase in the force of gravity: green and blue show areas with reduced gravity, yellow and red - areas with increased gravity. The smaller ring is the epicenter of the impact, which fell on the vicinity of the current village of Chicxulub, and the larger ring, covering not only the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula, but also the bottom within a radius of 90 km, is the edge of the meteorite crater. It is noteworthy that the strip of cenotes (karst sinkholes with underground freshwater lakes) in the northwest of Yucatan practically coincides with the focus of the explosion, with the largest accumulation in the eastern part of the circle and individual cenotes outside. Geologically, this can be explained by the filling of the funnel with limestone deposits up to a kilometer thick. The processes of destruction and erosion of limestone rocks caused the formation of voids and wells, drains with fresh underground lakes at the bottom. The cenotes outside the ring probably originated at the impact site of meteorite fragments thrown out of the crater by an explosion during the fall. The cenotes (not counting the rains, this is the only source of drinking water on the peninsula, so Maya-Toltec cities later grew up near them) are conventionally marked with white dots on the gravity map. But there were no more blank spots on the Yucatan map: in 2003, the results of a space survey of the crater surface, made by the Endeavor shuttle back in February 2000, were published (American cosmonauts were interested not only in Yucatan: in addition to the volume during the 11-day NASA topographic radar mission, 80% of the earth's surface was surveyed).
In the pictures taken from space, the border of the Chicxulub crater is in full view. To do this, the images were subjected to special computer processing, which "cleaned" the surface layers of sediments. On satellite imagery, even a trace of a fall in the form of a “tail” is visible, according to which it was determined that the meteorite approached the Earth at a small angle from the southeast, moving at a speed of approximately 30 km / s. At a distance of up to 150 km from the epicenter, secondary craters are visible. Probably, immediately after the fall of the meteorite, a ring-shaped ridge several kilometers high rose up around the main crater, but the ridge quickly collapsed, causing strong earthquakes, and this led to the formation of secondary craters.
In addition to space exploration, scientists have begun deep exploration of the Chiksulub crater: it is planned to drill three wells with a depth of 700 m to 1.5 km. This will restore the original geometry of the funnel, and chemical analysis rock samples taken at a depth of wells will allow us to determine the scale of that distant environmental catastrophe.

general information

Ancient meteorite crater.

Location: in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula and at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

date of the meteorite fall: 65 million years ago.

Administrative affiliation of the crater: State of Yucatan, Mexico.

largest locality inside the crater: state capital city - 1,955,577 people (2010).

Languages: Spanish (official), Mayan (Mayan language).

Ethnic composition: Maya Indians and mestizos.

Religion: Catholicism (majority).

Currency unit: Mexican peso.

Water sources: natural cenote wells (water from an underground karst lake).
Nearest airport: Manuel Cressensio Rejon International Airport, Merida.

Numbers

Crater diameter: 180 km.

meteorite diameter: 10-11 km.
Depth of the crater: not exactly determined, presumably up to 16 km.

Impact energy: 5 × 10 23 joules or 100 teraton of TNT.

Tsunami wave height(estimated): 50-100 m.

Climate and weather

Tropical.

Dry, very hot, woodlands and xerophytic shrubs predominate.
January average temperature: +23°С.
July average temperature: +28°С.
Average annual rainfall: 1500-1800 mm.

Economy

Industry: timber (cedar), food, tobacco, textile.

Agriculture: Farms grow Heneken agave, corn, citrus and other fruits, vegetables; Breeding cattle; beekeeping.

Fishing.
Service sector: financial, trade, tourism.

Attractions

■ Natural: cenote zone.
■ Cultural and historical: the ruins of the Mayan-Toltec cities in the cenote zone: Mayapan, Uxmal, Itzmal, etc. (Merida - modern city on the ruins of the ancient).

Curious facts

■ Near the cenotes, the ancient cities of the Maya and the Toltecs who conquered them were built. It is known that some of these cenotes (the most important - in Chichen Itza) were sacred for the Maya-Toltec civilization. Through the "eye of God" Indian priests communicated with the gods, and human sacrifices were thrown into it.
■ Even before the discovery of the Chicxulub meteorite crater in the scientific community of the late 1970s, the theory of an extraterrestrial (meteoritic) origin of the Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis, which led to the death of dinosaurs, was maturing. So, the father and son of Alvarez (a physicist and geologist), sequentially analyzing the composition of the soil in an archaeological section taken in Mexico, found in a clay layer aged 65 million years an anomalously increased (15 times) concentration of iridium - a rare element for the Earth, typical for a certain species asteroids. After the discovery of the Chicxulub crater, it would seem that their guesses were confirmed. However, similar studies of soil sections in Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand showed that in the layer of the same age, the concentration of iridium also exceeds the nominal value - 30, 160, and 20 times, respectively! This proves that there may have been a meteor shower over the Earth during that period.
■ In the first week after the fall of the meteorite, scientists believe that the fewest and most vulnerable species, already endangered, became extinct - the last of the giant sauropods and top predators. Due to acid rain and lack of light, some plant species began to die out, the rest slowed down the process of photosynthesis, as a result, there was not enough oxygen and a second wave of extinction began ... It took thousands of years for the ecological balance to be restored.

Many of us have heard of the Tunguska meteorite. At the same time, few people know about his brother, who fell to Earth in time immemorial. Chicxulub is a crater formed after a meteorite fell 65 million years ago. Its appearance on Earth led to serious consequences that affected the entire planet as a whole.

Where is Chicxulub crater located?

It is located in the northwestern region of the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. With a diameter of 180 km, the Chicxulub crater claims to be the largest meteorite crater on Earth. Part of it is on land, and the second part is under the waters of the bay.

Discovery history

The discovery of the crater was accidental. Since it has a huge size, they did not even know about its existence. Scientists discovered it quite by accident in 1978 during geophysical surveys of the Gulf of Mexico. The research expedition was organized by Pemex (full name Petroleum Mexican). She faced a difficult task - to find oil deposits at the bottom of the bay. Geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo, in the course of research, first discovered a stunningly symmetrical seventy-kilometer arc under water. Thanks to the gravitational map, scientists have found a continuation of this arc on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) near the village of Chicxulub.

The name of the village is translated from the Mayan language as "tick demon". This name is associated with an unprecedented number of insects in this region since ancient times. It was the consideration on the map (gravitational) that made it possible to make many assumptions.

Scientific substantiation of the hypothesis

Having closed, the found arcs form a circle, the diameter of which is 180 kilometers. One of the researchers named Penfield immediately suggested that this was an impact crater that appeared as a result of a meteorite fall.

His theory turned out to be correct, which was confirmed by some facts. It was found inside the crater. In addition, scientists have found samples of "shock quartz" with a compressed molecular structure, as well as glassy tektites. Such substances can be formed only at extreme pressure and temperature values. The fact that Chicksculub is a crater that has no equal on Earth was no longer in doubt, but irrefutable evidence was needed to confirm the assumptions. And they were found.

Scientifically confirm the hypothesis was succeeded by the professor of the department of the University of Calgary Hildebrant in 1980 thanks to the study chemical composition terrain rocks and detailed satellite imagery of the peninsula.

Consequences of a meteorite fall

It is believed that Chicxulub is a crater formed by the fall of a meteorite, the diameter of which is at least ten kilometers. Scientists' calculations show that the meteorite was moving at a slight angle from the southeast. Its speed was 30 kilometers per second.

The fall of a huge cosmic body to Earth occurred about 65 million years ago. Scientists suggest that this event happened just at the turn of the Paleogonian and the Cretaceous period. The consequences of the impact were catastrophic and had a huge impact on the further development of life on Earth. As a result of the collision of a meteorite with the earth's surface, the largest crater on Earth was formed.

According to scientists, the power of the strike exceeded several million times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. As a result of the impact, the largest crater on Earth was formed, surrounded by a ridge, the height of which was several thousand meters. But soon the ridge collapsed due to earthquakes and other geological transformations provoked by a meteorite impact. According to scientists, a tsunami began from a powerful blow. Presumably the height of their waves was 50-100 meters. The waves went to the continents, destroying everything in their path.

Global cooling on the planet

The shock wave went around the entire Earth several times. With its high temperature, it caused the strongest forest fires. Volcanism and other tectonic processes have intensified in different regions of the planet. Numerous volcanic eruptions and the burning of large forest areas have led to the fact that a huge amount of gases, dust, ash and soot have entered the atmosphere. It's hard to imagine, but the raised particles caused the process of volcanic winter. It lies in the fact that most of the solar energy is reflected by the atmosphere, resulting in global cooling.

Such climatic changes, along with other severe consequences of the impact, had a detrimental effect on the living world of the planet. Plants did not have enough light for photosynthesis, which led to a decrease in oxygen in the atmosphere. The disappearance of a huge part of the Earth's vegetation led to the death of animals that lacked food. It was these events that led to the complete extinction of the dinosaurs.

Extinction at the border of the Cretaceous and Paleogene period

The fall of a meteorite is currently considered the most convincing reason for the mass death of all life. The version of the extinction of living beings took place even before the Chicxulub (crater) was discovered. And one could only guess about the reasons that caused the cooling of the climate.

Scientists have found a high content of iridium (a very rare element) in sediments that are about 65 million years old. An interesting fact is that a high concentration of the element was found not only in the Yucatan, but also in other places on the planet. Therefore, experts say that, most likely, there was a meteor shower.

On the border of the Paleogene and Cretaceous, all dinosaurs, marine reptiles, which reigned in this period for a long time, died out. All ecosystems were completely destroyed. In the absence of large pangolins, the evolution of birds and mammals accelerated, the species diversity of which increased significantly.

According to scientists, it can be assumed that other mass extinctions were triggered by the fall of large meteorites. Available calculations allow us to say that large cosmic bodies fall to the Earth once every hundred million years. And this roughly corresponds to the length of time between mass extinctions.

What happened after the meteorite fell?

What happened on Earth after the meteorite fell? According to paleontologist Daniel Durd ( Research institute Colorado), in a matter of minutes and hours, the lush and flourishing world of the planet turned into a devastated land. Thousands of kilometers from the place where the meteorite fell, everything was completely destroyed. The impact claimed the lives of more than three-quarters of all living things and plants on Earth. It was the dinosaurs that suffered the most, they all died out.

For a long time, people did not even know about the existence of the crater. But after it was found, it became necessary to study it, since scientists have accumulated many hypotheses that need to be verified, questions and assumptions. If you look at the Yucatan Peninsula on a map, it is difficult to imagine the actual size of the crater on the ground. Its northern part is far from the coast and is covered with 600 meters of ocean sediments.

In 2016, scientists began drilling in the area of ​​the marine part of the crater in order to extract core samples. Analysis of the extracted samples will shed light on events that happened a long time ago.

Events that took place after the disaster

The fall of the asteroid evaporated a huge part of the earth's crust. Over the crash site, debris soared into the sky, fires and volcanic eruptions broke out on Earth. It was the soot and dust that blocked the sunlight and plunged the planet into a very long period of winter darkness.

Over the following months, dust and debris rained down on earth's surface, covering the planet in a dense layer of asteroid dust. It is this layer that is for paleontologists evidence of a turning point in the history of the Earth.

In the North American region, before the meteorite impact, lush forests flourished with a dense undergrowth of ferns and flowers. The climate in those days was much warmer than today. There was no snow at the poles, and dinosaurs roamed not only in Alaska, but also in the Seymour Islands.

Scientists studied the consequences of a meteorite impact on the ground by analyzing the Cretaceous-Paleogene layer found in more than 300 places around the world. This gave reason to say that all living things died near the epicenter of events. The opposite part of the planet suffered from earthquakes, tsunamis, lack of light and other consequences of the disaster.

Those living beings that did not die immediately, died from lack of water and food, destroyed by acid rain. The death of vegetation led to the death of herbivores, from which carnivores also suffered, left without food. Every link in the chain has been broken.

New assumptions of scientists

According to scientists who studied fossils, only the smallest creatures (like raccoons, for example) could survive on Earth. It was they who had a chance to survive in those conditions. Because they eat less, they reproduce faster and adapt more easily.

Fossils say that in Europe and North America there was a more favorable situation after the disaster than in other places. Mass extinction is a dual process. If something has died on one side, something has to arise on the other side. Scientists think so.

The restoration of the Earth took a very long time. Hundreds, if not thousands of years passed before ecosystems were restored. Presumably, it took the oceans three million years to restore the normal life of organisms.

After strong fires, ferns settled in the ground, quickly populating the burnt regions. Those ecosystems that escaped the fire were inhabited by mosses and algae. The areas least affected by the destruction became places where some species of living creatures could survive. Later they spread all over the planet. So, for example, sharks, some fish, crocodiles survived in the oceans.

The complete extinction of the dinosaurs opened up new ecological niches for other creatures to fill. Subsequently, the migration of mammals to vacant places led to their modern abundance on the planet.

New information about the past of the planet

Drilling the world's largest crater, located in the Yucatan Peninsula, and taking more and more samples will allow scientists to get more data on how the crater was formed and on the consequences of the fall on the formation of new climatic conditions. Samples taken from the inside of the crater will allow experts to understand what happened to the Earth after the strongest impact and how life was restored in the future. Scientists are interested in understanding how the restoration took place and who returned first, how quickly the evolutionary diversity of forms appeared.

Even though they died certain types and organisms, other forms of life began to flourish doubly. According to scientists, such a picture of a disaster on the planet could be repeated many times over the entire history of the Earth. And each time, all living things perished, and in the future, recovery processes took place. It is likely that the course of history and development would have been different if the asteroid had not fallen on the planet 65 million years ago. Experts also do not exclude the possibility that life on the planet was born due to the fall of large asteroids.

Instead of an afterword

The fall of the asteroid caused the strongest hydrothermal activity of the Chicxulub crater, which most likely lasted 100,000 years. She could enable hypermatophiles and thermophiles (these are exotic single-celled organisms) to thrive in hot environments by settling inside the crater. This hypothesis of scientists, of course, needs to be tested. It is rock drilling that can help shed light on many events. Therefore, scientists still have many questions that need to be answered by studying Chicxulub (crater).

Many researchers are of the opinion that dinosaurs died as a result of the fall of a large meteorite almost 66 million years ago. True, there are experts who assure that he simply finished off the ancient lizards, who began to die out already before the fall of the space "aliens".

Nevertheless, the very fact of the fall of a meteorite by scientists, of course, is not disputed. Moreover, some experts are carefully studying the impact crater near the Yucatan Peninsula, which is somehow associated with the extinction of dinosaurs.

The impact crater is called Chicxulub (Mayan for "tick demon"). Last spring, an international team of researchers drilled a well in one of the parts of the Chicxulub crater - to a depth of 506 to 1335 meters under the seabed (the crater is partially submerged under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico). And thanks to this, not so long ago, scientists were able to determine sea level measurements from prehistoric times.

Now, experts have recovered rock samples from under the Gulf of Mexico, which were hit by that same meteorite. This material helped scientists to get the most important details that allow us to better understand the long-standing event. It turned out that a giant asteroid could not find a worse place to land on our planet.

The shallow sea covers the "target", which means that as a result of the fall of the space "aliens" huge volumes of sulfur released from the gypsum mineral were thrown into the atmosphere. And following the immediate firestorm that occurred after the fall of the meteorite, an extended period of "global winter" began.

The researchers say that if the intruder had fallen in a different place, a completely different result could have been obtained.

"The irony of the story is that it wasn't the size of the meteorite or the scale of the explosion that caused the disaster, but the place it fell into," says Ben Garrod, co-host of The Day the Dinosaurs Died. Day The Dinosaurs Died with Alice Roberts), in which the findings of scientists were presented.

In particular, experts say, if an asteroid, the size of which was supposedly 15 kilometers across, had reached the Earth a few seconds earlier or later, it would have landed not in coastal shallow water, but in the deep ocean. A fall in the Atlantic or Pacific would have vaporized far fewer rocks—including deadly calcium sulfate.

The clouds would be less dense, so that the sun's rays could break through to the surface of the Earth. Accordingly, the consequences that occurred could have been avoided.

“In that cold and dark world, food in the ocean ended within one week, and after a short time on land. Without a source of food, the mighty dinosaurs had little chance of survival,” notes Garrod.

It is noted that the core (rock sample) was extracted from depths of up to 1300 meters while drilling in the crater area. The deepest parts of the rock were mined in the so-called "peak ring". By analyzing the properties of this material, the authors of the work hope to reconstruct in more detail the picture of the fall of the asteroid and the subsequent changes, the BBC News website reports.

The researchers, by the way, found that the energy released during the formation of the crater was equal to the energy of about ten billion atomic bombs like the one that was dropped on Hiroshima. The researchers are also looking into how the site began to come back to life a few years after the meteorite fell.

We add that some experts tend to believe that dark matter, for example, is to blame for the extinction of dinosaurs, and microbes are also under the "sight". It is possible that volcanoes also contributed.