Fine dust thrown up into Earth’s atmosphere after an asteroid strike 66 million years ago blocked the sun to an extent that plants were unable to photosynthesize, a new study has found.
The age of the dinosaurs ended 66 million years ago when a city-size asteroid struck a shallow sea off the coast of what is now Mexico. But exactly how the mass extinction of 75% of the species on Earth unfolded in the years that followed the cataclysmic impact has remained unclear. Previous research suggested that sulfur released during the impact, which left the 112-mile-wide Chicxulub crater, and soot from wildfires triggered a global winter, and temperatures plunged.
The sample from the site analyzed for the new study contained silicate dust particles that were thrust into the atmosphere in a plume of ejecta before returning to Earth. The team determined that this fine dust could have remained in the atmosphere for up to 15 years after the asteroid strike. The researchers suggested the global climate may have cooled by as much as 15 degrees Celsius. Their research marked the first time these dust particles had been studied in detail.
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