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Scientists discover a 5-mile wide undersea crater created as the dinosaurs disappeared
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/17/africa/asteroid-crater-west-africa-scn/index.htmlScientists discover a 5-mile wide undersea crater created as the dinosaurs disappeared
By Katie Hunt, CNN
Updated 1230 GMT (2030 HKT) August 18, 2022
(CNN) - An asteroid from space slammed into the Earth's surface 66 million years ago, leaving a massive crater underneath the sea and wreaking havoc with the planet.
No, it's not that asteroid, the one that doomed the dinosaurs to extinction, but a previously unknown crater 248 miles off the coast of West Africa that was created right around the same time. Further study of the Nadir crater, as it's called, could shake up what we know about that cataclysmic moment in natural history.
Uisdean Nicholson, an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, happened on the crater by accident -- he was reviewing seismic survey data for another project on the tectonic split between South America and Africa and found evidence of the crater beneath 400 meters of seabed sediment.
"While interpreting the data, I (came) across this very unusual crater-like feature, unlike anything I had ever seen before," he said.
By Katie Hunt, CNN
Updated 1230 GMT (2030 HKT) August 18, 2022
(CNN) - An asteroid from space slammed into the Earth's surface 66 million years ago, leaving a massive crater underneath the sea and wreaking havoc with the planet.
No, it's not that asteroid, the one that doomed the dinosaurs to extinction, but a previously unknown crater 248 miles off the coast of West Africa that was created right around the same time. Further study of the Nadir crater, as it's called, could shake up what we know about that cataclysmic moment in natural history.
Uisdean Nicholson, an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, happened on the crater by accident -- he was reviewing seismic survey data for another project on the tectonic split between South America and Africa and found evidence of the crater beneath 400 meters of seabed sediment.
"While interpreting the data, I (came) across this very unusual crater-like feature, unlike anything I had ever seen before," he said.