Chicxulub impact visualization

A visualization of the immediate and long-term environmental effects of the impact event which marked the end of the Cretaceous period, circa 65 mya. Produced by Radek Michalik and David Dolak in collaboration with the Science Institute at Chicago's Columbia College. I DID NOT MAKE THIS.

If such an impact were to occur today, the best strategy for immediate survival would be to be in a different hemisphere when it happened. The kinetic energy of a six-mile-wide rock piling into the earth at 50,000 mph must be conserved, and in order to do this much of this energy is converted to thermal energy - enough to cause third-degree burns from seven hundred and fifty miles away, and to light you on fire if you are much closer. Little to nothing would survive within six hundred miles of the impact zone - note the "scorched earth" appearance of the North American continent at KT + 2 weeks. Other immediate effects include a major earthquake, an airblast capable of leveling forests and buildings, semi-molten ejecta raining from the sky and sparking global wildfires and, once the shockwave reaches the antipodal point of the Earth, massive volcanic eruptions which can last for many thousands of years (such as those that formed the Siberian Traps).

A modern theory states that not one, but several impacts ushered forth the mass extinction to follow, including the impacts which created the Silverpit Crater in the English Channel, and Boltysh Crater in the Ukraine; though neither were as large or devastating as Chicxulub, they are possibly the result of an impact similar to comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter.

The University of Arizona has released a calculator for estimating the effects of small- to large-scale impact events.

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

Yes, this is a repost. My old account got tagged by a vandal-bot.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Chicxulub
• asteroid
• meteor
• impact
• extinction
• mesozoic
• dinosaur
• cretaceous
• tertiary
• visualization
• yucatan

[accountok01]

You shoulad actually change the part about 300 million nuclear bombs. That is misleading especially considering the variable power of various nuclear weapons. Best to state in megatons and give a refference. Good vid by the way

[MYApictures]

@accountok01

Would if I could, friend, but I didn't make the video. Still, thanks. It's the best visualization I've been able to find to date. I included some information I was able to find in the video description, including a link to an Impact Effects calculator published by the University of Arizona. It's sobering.

[brendude95]

Finally...Realism...Facts!!!

Im sick of seeing an asteroid the size of the moon splitting the Earth in two and creating a huge fireball that consumes the solar system >=( its never going to fucking happen...

[OL1V3R666]

0:35 RIP HEADPHONE USERS

[MrVisualeasy]

Que loco! Já pensou se um bixo desses pega nóis!?

[puncheex]

@thefreecypriot: That's certainly possible; but what would it be when it got to, of, 150 miles, about the size of the crater? Of course, most of that would have been ballistic in the first place, likely rising completely out of the atmosphere.

[thefreecypriot]

@puncheex sorry, should have made myself crystal clear on what i was referring to. What i mentioned when i said hypersonic speeds was the heaving wall of water and rock vapour that detonated from the impact site at hypersonic speeds. A Uni of Wisconsin research dating to 2007 (might be outdated) rated the estimated speed of the shock front at r=20km at almost Mach 30.

[smuggecko]

very interesting thanks

[JoshLo3340]

@accountok01 Not entirely accurate. 300 million nublear bombs would have done far greater damage.

[osclarkos]

interesting video and very informative

[puncheex]

@thefreecypriot: kasparov mentioned high tsunamis in Texas, and you added "especially at hypersonic speeds". Objects can travel supersonically through an atmosphere only with great difficulty and energy expense; unless driven, they quickly decelerate to sonic speeds. Something like a wave would break up into vapor and cloud droplets.

[thefreecypriot]

@puncheex i'm not sure i get exactly what you mean. can you clarify please ? i wrote down my last comment so long ago that i almost forgot what i was saying...

[clairebehun]

some great inforamtion here thanks