Impact Craters

Today I learnt all about impacts and their effect on our planet (and others).

An impact crater is defined as "a crater on a planet or moon caused by the impact of a meteorite or other object, typically circular with a raised rim." How many impact sites does earth have? Can scientists prove the cause of the death of the dinosaurs with the evidence of Impact craters?

Some impact craters that we've found on earth

Barringer Crater

- located in the Colorado Plateau in Northern Arizona

- nearly 1.5 km wide and 570 feet deep

- meteor was travelling at a velocity of about 3okm/s

- happened forty-nine thousand years ago

Manicouagan Crater

- located in Quebec, Canada... annular lake surrounds it

- happened two-hundred million years ago

- 65 km in diameter

Chicxulub Crater

- located in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

- 180 km in diameter

- happened around sixty-six million years ago

- the meteor that ended the dinosaurs

So what exactly happened to the dinosaurs?

One day about sixty-six million years ago, the earth was filled with life... Dinosaurs and other animals roaming, enjoying life to it's fullest. Unfortunately with no idea that a massive asteroid was hurling towards earth at a speed of 64,000 km an hour. This asteroid collided with earth, in the place now known as the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Dinosaurs within 1000 km of the location of impact, would have been killed instantly, burning from the fire ball. Dinosaurs who didn't die from initial impact, however, would have died from the geological impacts... like temperature changes, earth quakes, tsunamis... It would have been very slow and painful deaths.

The layer of Iridium found on earth's surface also supports this theory of the extinction happening because of the impact. Space rocks are primarily composed of Iridium and there is a layer of Iridium found above ALL fossils. No fossils of dinosaurs have popped up above this layer. Scientists have discovered this evidence by using radioisotope dating.

We can actually compare the asteroid impact, Chicxulub, that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs to a certain asteroid impact crater on the moon known as the Tycho Crater.

Why is the Tycho crater on the moon so significant?

To understand the theory of the Tycho crater having relations to the Chicxulub crater, we first have to understand the origins of this theory. Studies claim that an ancient collision between two mega-asteroids spawned the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs and created the Chicxulub crater. This collision is believed to have taken place 160 million years ago in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This collision would have resulted in large chunks of debris being hurled into space... forming the well known Chicxulub crater as well as the Tycho crater located on the moon.

During the Apollo 17 mission , research was gathered from ray proving that the Tycho crater is around the same age as the Chicxulub crater, further backing up this extravagant theory. Because of this, the Tycho crater is commonly known as the "sister crater" to the Chicxulub crater!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, thank you for your time!