[Rockhounds] 66-million-year-old deathbed linked to dinosaur-killing meteor

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

The beginning of the end started with violent shaking that raised giant
waves in the waters of an inland sea in what is now North Dakota.

Then, tiny glass beads began to fall like birdshot from the heavens. The
rain of glass was so heavy it may have set fire to much of the vegetation
on land. In the water, fish struggled to breathe as the beads clogged their
gills.

The heaving sea turned into a 30-foot wall of water when it reached the
mouth of a river, tossing hundreds, if not thousands, of fresh-water
fish—sturgeon and paddlefish—onto a sand bar and temporarily reversing the
flow of the river. Stranded by the receding water, the fish were pelted by
glass beads up to 5 millimeters in diameter, some burying themselves inches
deep in the mud. The torrent of rocks, like fine sand, and small glass
beads continued for another 10 to 20 minutes before a second large wave
inundated the shore and covered the fish with gravel, sand and fine
sediment, sealing them from the world for 66 million years.

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-million-year-old-deathbed-linked-dinosaur-killing-meteor.html