(NLDO) - The mysterious object has carved a crater 8 km wide into the Earth's surface and could be an "accomplice" of Chicxulub.
According to The Guardian , traces of an extraterrestrial object found on the seabed off the coast of Guinea in West Africa may be evidence that the extinction event that dinosaurs suffered 66 million years ago was not caused by the "killer" Chicxulub alone.
The Nadir impact crater may be evidence of an "accomplice" of the Chicxulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth - Illustration AI: ANH THU
About 66 million years ago, a giant asteroid called Chicxulub unleashed a force equivalent to about 1 million atomic bombs on Earth, triggering a series of catastrophic disasters that ended the planet's "monster age."
The remnants of this event are an impact crater that straddles Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Now, scientists have discovered a startling truth: Dating results of an impact crater up to 8 km in diameter off the coast of West Africa show that it appeared about 65-67 million years ago.
Calculations show that it is the remaining trace of an asteroid more than 400 m in diameter, which once rushed to Earth at a speed of more than 72,420 km/h.
Dr. Uisdean Nicholson - a marine geologist at Heriot-Watt University (UK), the lead author of the study on the crater named Nadir - said scientists discovered the impact crater thanks to 3D maps created from seismic waves.
The results showed that in addition to its huge diameter, the crater was also up to 300 m deep.
These details show that the collision, although "weaker" than the Chicxulub disaster, was enough to cause violent tremors that liquefied sediments below the ocean floor, forming new faults.
The terrifying event also caused landslides with visible damage for thousands of square miles beyond the rim of the impact crater.
From there, a "monster" tsunami more than 800 m high was formed and swept across the Atlantic Ocean.
Large amounts of greenhouse gases were also suddenly released into the atmosphere during the chain of disasters.
Writing in the scientific journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the researchers said they also suspect the space rock is a "brother" of Chicxulub.
It is possible that both objects were separated from a common "mother body," a large asteroid that broke into many large and small pieces on its way to Earth.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/sat-thu-so-2-len-dap-xuong-trai-dat-giua-tham-hoa-thien-thach-196241005084745045.htm
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