The death of the dinosaur asteroidThe impact of that earthquake on Earth 66 millions years ago also created a tsunami of enormous size with miles-high waves in Gulf of Mexico. These waters traveled half-way around the globe, according to a new study.
Researchers discovered evidence of this monumental tsunami after analyzing cores from more than 100 sites worldwide and creating digital models of the monstrous waves after the asteroid’s impact in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Molly Range, lead author of the study and modeler of the modeling study, stated that “this tsunami was strong enough” to disturb and erode sediments from ocean basins halfway around Earth.
The research into the Mile-high tsunamiThe paper, previously presented at 2019 American Geophysical Union’s Annual Meeting, was published online by the journal on Tuesday, October 4. AGU Advances.
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Related: Could an Asteroid Destroy Earth?
Range dived into the tsunami’s path immediately after the event. asteroid‘s collision. Her team modelled an asteroid measuring 8.7 miles (14 km) in diameter and zooming at 27,000 mph (43.500 km/h), which is 35 times faster than sound when it hit Earth.
Many lifeforms perished after the asteroid struck; nonavian dinosaurs went extinct (Only birds, which are still living dinosaurs, can be used, which are still alive today), and around three-quarters (or more) of all animals and plants were exterminated.
Researchers are well aware of many of these. asteroid’s pernicious effectsThese included lighting raging flames that cooked live animals, and crushing sulfur-rich rocks which led to Acid rain can cause deathAnd Extended global cooling.
Range and her colleagues studied the Earth’s geology in order to better understand the tsunami. They were able to analyze 120 “boundary section” or marine sediments just before or after the mass-extinction event. Cretaceous period.
Range claimed that the boundary sections corresponded to their predictions about wave heights and travel.
Researchers found that the initial energy of the tsunami’s impact was nearly 30,000 times greater than that released by the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people.
The asteroid created a 62-mile (100 km) wide crater on Earth and emitted a dense cloud of soot and dust into the atmosphere.
A curtain of ejected materials pushed outwards, creating a wave of water that was 2.8 miles tall (4.5 km) and crashed down just 2.5 minutes later. EarthAccording to the simulation.
At 10 minutes, a tsunami that measured 0.93 miles high (1.5km) was sweeping through the gulf from all directions. It was about 137 miles (220km) away. One hour later, the tsunami had already left the Gulf of Mexico. It rushed into North Atlantic.
Four hours following the impact, the tsunami passed through the Central American Seaway – a passage that separated North from South America at the time – and into the Pacific.
The asteroid had collided with the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans a full day earlier. Within 48 hours, the waves touched most of the world’s coasts.
Related: Louisiana is home to 52-foot tall’megaripples’ from an asteroid that killed dinosaurs
Tsunami’s power
The tsunami’s impact was mostly to the east, northeast and southeast. It surged into the North Atlantic Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean, and the Southwest via the Central American Seaway.
These areas were so fast that water traveled at a speed of 0.4 mph (0.6 km/h) in these areas. This velocity can cause seafloor sediments to become fine-grained.
According to models by the team, other regions were spared the power of the tsunami, including the South Atlantic and the North Pacific as well as the Indian Ocean, which is now the Mediterranean Sea.
The simulations revealed that these water speeds were lower than the threshold of 0.4 mph.
The team even found outcrops – or exposed rocky deposits – from the impact event on eastern New Zealand’s north and south islands, a distance of more than 7,500 miles (12,000 km) from the Chicxulub crater in Mexico.
Scientists originally believed these outcrops could be caused by local earthquakes. The researchers at the study attributed the outcrops to the tsunami’s massive waves, due to their age and position in the modeled route.
Range stated that he believes these deposits are recording the effects from the tsunami impact and that this is the most telling confirmation of its global significance.
Although the models didn’t include coastal flooding, the models showed that open ocean waves in the Gulf of Mexico would have surpassed 328 feet (100m). Waves would have reached heights of 32.8 feet (10m) when the tsunami reached the North Atlantic’s coastline and parts of South America’s Pacific coast.
Wave heights would have increased dramatically as the water was shallower near the coast.
According to the study, “Depending upon the geometries on the coast and the advancing wave, most coastal regions will be inundated/eroded at some extent.” “Any tsunamis that have been documented historically pale in comparison to this global impact.”
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This article was first published by Live Science. You can read the original article Here.
