Study Suggests Ancient Asteroid Caused Global Firestorm on Earth

Posted on March 28, 2013

A new University of Colorado Boulder suggests that a global firestorm was triggered on Earth after an asteroid the size of Manhattan slammed into Mexico. The researchers say the firestorm would have "burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth's species."

The asteroid collided with Earth about 66 million years ago and carved the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. This crater is more than 110 miles in diameter.

The research team, led by Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) used models that show the collision would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth's atmosphere. The re-entering ejected material would have heated the upper atmosphere enough to glow red for several hours at about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. The scientists say this would have killed every living thing not sheltered underground or underwater.

Roberston said in a statement, "Our data show the conditions back then are consistent with widespread fires across the planet. Those conditions resulted in 100 percent extinction rates for about 80 percent of all life on Earth."

Roberston also says, "It's likely that the total amount of infrared heat was equal to a 1 megaton bomb exploding every four miles over the entire Earth." One megaton bomb has the explosive power of 80 Hiroshima-type bombs. Robertson says the collision would have generated 100 million megatons of energy.

A research paper about the ancient asteroid impact was published here in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

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