[Rockhounds] Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs also triggered a global tsunami

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

When a city-size asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped
out the dinosaurs – and sent a monster tsunami rippling around the planet,
according to new research.

The asteroid, about 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) wide, left an impact crater
about 62 miles (100 kilometers) across near Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. In
addition to ending the reign of the dinosaurs, the direct hit triggered a
mass extinction of 75% of animal and plant life on the planet.

When the asteroid hit, it created a series of cataclysmic events. Global
temperatures fluctuated; plumes of aerosol, soot and dust filled the air;
and wildfires started as flaming pieces of material blasted from the impact
re-entered the atmosphere and rained down. Within 48 hours, a tsunami had
circled the globe – and it was thousands of times more energetic than
modern tsunamis caused by earthquakes.

Researchers set out to gain a better understanding of the tsunami and its
reach through modeling. They found evidence to support their findings about
the path and power of the tsunami by studying 120 ocean sediment cores from
across the globe. A study detailing the findings published Tuesday in the
journal American Geophysical Union Advances
<https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021AV000627>.

It’s the first global simulation of the tsunami caused by the Chicxulub
impact to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, according to
the authors.

The tsunami was powerful enough to create towering waves more than a mile
high and scour the ocean floor thousands of miles away from where the
asteroid hit, according to the study. It effectively wiped away the
sediment record of what happened before the event, as well as during it.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/world/dinosaur-asteroid-tsunami-scn/index.html
<https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/world/asteroid-dinosaur-extinction-spring-scn/index.html>