How do you study a meteorite impact that decimated life 66 million years ago? - Eos Pipet 2024

Eos Wetenschap

That the age of dinosaurs ended due to a meteorite impact is well enough known by now. But what was the concrete cause of death of this last mass extinction wave? Cem Berk Senel (Royal Observatory and VUB) breathed new life into an old hypothesis by combining new geological data with simulations of the impact with a palaeoclimate model. Fine dust released during the impact would have blocked sunlight for years, causing an 'impact winter'.