![]() The collision ejected 100 billion tons of sulphate-rich dust into the atmosphere that, along with the smoke from raging fires, blocked out the sun. The deadliest consequences of the asteroid impact took more time to take effect. That was followed by magnitude 10 earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and killer tsunamis up to 1,000 feet tall. ![]() About 66 million years ago, an asteroid or comet measuring between 9 and 18 miles across crashed into the Gulf of Mexico with the explosive violence of 100 million atomic bombs and created a fireball that burned at 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit.Įven before the molten debris rained down from the sky, lighting unquenchable fires across the world, a shockwave of air pulverized all plant and animal life within a 1,000-mile radius of the impact site. In the Mayan language, Chicxulub means “tail of the devil,” an appropriate name for the impact event that forever altered life on planet Earth. The asteroid that caused this is widely believed to have provoked the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species at this time. Illustration of the Chicxulub crater, shortly after its formation, off the coast of present-day Mexico. Geologists have found evidence that the force of the impact at Sudbury created huge subterranean magma fields rivaling some of the world’s largest volcanoes and left a crater that originally measured 93 miles in diameter. The only life on earth at that time was single-celled organisms, so nothing was there to witness the colossal impact, which sent hunks of debris flying as far as present-day Minnesota, about 750 miles away. Scientists believe it was an icy comet, not a meteor, that slammed to Earth 1.8 billion years ago and splashed down in the shallow coastal waters of an ancient supercontinent called Nuna. Starting in the 1880s, miners discovered rich deposits of nickel, palladium, copper and other valuable metals in Sudbury’s soil, clues that point to a cataclysmic event deep in the region’s past. There’s not much to see from the town of Sudbury that would give away the presence of such a large crater, but there’s ample evidence underground. The Sudbury Basin is the oldest known impact crater in North America. People look over an outcropping of a copper and nickel deposits 2750 feet below the surface at the Podolsky Mine, owned by the FNX Mining Company Inc., in the Sudbury Basin, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, June 10, 2008. Similar to the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs, scientists theorize that the Manicouagan impact site and others of the late Triassic period may have triggered a mass extinction event that wiped out 60 percent of species at the time. (The rock took as long as 5,000 years to fully cool.) Scientists believe the fireball created by the impact may have expanded as far as present-day New York City, almost 800 miles away, and debris from the impact has been identified in the United Kingdom. Roughly 212 million years ago, a meteor measuring more than three miles in diameter smashed into the earth, liquifying the crust as deep as 5.5 miles below the surface. That’s because the Manicouagan Crater is not only very big but its outer ring is filled with water and serves as a hydroelectric reservoir.Ī crater this big required an epic impact event. Known as “The Eye of Quebec,” the Manicouagan Crater is the fifth largest impact crater in the world and the only one that’s clearly visible from space. Location: Lake Manicouagan, Quebec, Canadaĭate of Impact: About 212 million years ago Satellite image of Manicouagan Reservoir, also known as Lake Manicouagan, an annular lake in northern Quebec, Canada, the remnant of an impact crater made millions of years ago. The debris includes rock embedded with microscopic diamonds formed in mere seconds under the intense pressure of the impact. In the 1960s, NASA astronauts trained at the crater in preparation for the Apollo moon missions. The crater was found by white settlers in the 19th century and was first identified as a meteor impact site by mining engineer Daniel Barringer in 1903, who noted the concentric pattern of the debris field stretching for miles in all directions. ![]() The rock, measuring 100 feet across, was barely slowed by the Earth’s atmosphere and struck with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. It was formed 50,000 years ago when a hunk of iron called the Canyon Diablo meteorite struck the earth at an estimated speed of 26,000 mph. deepĪ popular tourist destination, the bowl-shaped Barringer Crater or “Meteor Crater” in Arizona is one of the most recognizable impact craters in North America.
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