As much as I love Geology, Astronomy is one category I am very uncomfortable knowing with good cause, its one area, which we are not in the upper hand of the court. Many areas of environmental geology we can prepare or mitigate the dangers Earth’s Fury bestows us. We can closely watch the weathers phenomenon such as Flooding, Droughts, Hurricanes or Tornadic disasters to better notify the public in advance or that we are able to cope with the situation. We are pretty up to date for some predicting of Plate Tectonics such as volcanic eruptions, Earthquakes and thus Tsunamis. Not a “DEEP IMPACT” asteroid collision, to our Blue Planet. The lucky ones will die instantly in this Armageddon, most will endure slow deaths resulting from the collision.
Here is a fun fact: Earths had several direct catastrophic extinction (5 killers to be exact)
THE DINO KILLER
The most commonly discussed is the Chicxulub which hit just off the coast of the Mexican Yucatan peninsula. Through carbon dating the impact we can positively identify the event occurred exactly 65 million years ago and killed off the giant lizards. This asteroid was merely 10 kilometers in diameter, when it slammed into a shallow sea. The resulting crater, called Chicxulub or native for "Tail of the Devil", is about 150 kilometers across! The resulting tsunami would have hit Texas with a wave 50 to 100 meters high. Millions of tons of material were hurled into the atmosphere, causing wildfires across the world as they landed. Rocks fragments called "tektites" formed instantly from droplets of moltenized quartz and are found as far north as Wyoming. A layer of fine dust from this impact can be found in sedimentary rocks throughout the world, marking the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary. Scientists guess that this fine dust blocked sunlight creating darkness for up to 6 months, plants halted growth without the sun’s rays for the cycle of photosynthesis estimated for about 2-12months. Thus the devastating deaths of species went right up the food chain, “The Golden Age of Dinosaurs” came to an end.
