How did an asteroid strike kill the Dinosaurs?

There is no question that something drastic happened nearly sixty-six million and wiped out the dinosaurs. However, now scientists are learning that it was not a sudden event that killed this giants but it was a gradual process that lasted many years.

 

Climatologists, turned scientists have analyzed the tiny droplets of sulfuric acid that formed in the atmosphere after the impact of the large asteroid. The one well know fact is that for several years after this cosmic disaster, the earth had little or no sunlight for several years. This resulted in death of plants and the food web cycle was destroyed.

New computer simulations after the asteroid impact indicate that sulfuric acid droplets persisted in the atmosphere for a very long time and the consequence was a deep freeze. It was this arctic-like cold that most likely caused death of the land living dinosaurs.

Plus, more evidence seems to suggest that an additional factor in the death may have been the turbulent mixing of the oceans as a result of the surface cooling. This may have also caused imbalance in the marine ecosystem, depriving the water-based dinosaurs of their food.

Some experts believe that the impact of the asteroid that resulted in the Chicxulub crater in Mexico may have been the turning point in the history of the earth.

For the first time, scientists have now been able to perform computer simulations that apply a climate model coupled with changes in the atmosphere, sea ice, and the oceans. These studies show that sulfur-bearing gases started to evaporate following the thunderous asteroid impact with the earth’s surface. This gas not only caused a blockage of sunlight but also made the air unbreathable. By blocking sunlight, the earth’s temperature fell from 27C to 5C. It was a deep freeze for the dinosaurs that were used to living in tropical weather.

After the asteroid impact, the annual average temperature was below the freezing point for at least 3-4 years resulting in expansion of the ice caps. Even the tropics were not spared and went cold. The prolonged cooling caused by the sulfur aerosol probably played a major role in mass extrication than the dust that was in the air at that time. Recovery of the climate took at least 3 decades based on computer simulations.

What this study shows is that climate is important for all living creatures – be it land or the sea.

Today we do not anticipate an asteroid strike on planet earth for thousands more years but what we have prepared is our own Armageddon: from man made global-warming; and one of these days the non-believers will find out the repercussions of this uncontrolled process.