Dinosaur-killing asteroid strike created a global tsunami, scientists say

[Judi Lynn]

The dino killing asteroid strike created waves as high as 328 feet in some places and likely flooded every coastline on the planet

Jon Kelvey
15 hours ago

Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid around 6 miles wide slammed into the water near what is now the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, generating a massive explosion that changed the climate and killed off the dinosaurs.

Thanks to new research, scientists now know the Chicxulub impact, as it is known, generated a global tsunami wave the likes of which have not been seen since.

“Depending on the geometries of the coast and the advancing waves, most coastal regions would be inundated and eroded to some extent," the researchers wrote in a new paper published Tuesday in the journal AGU Advances. "Any historically documented tsunamis pale in comparison with such global impact."

The new study is the first-ever peer-reviewed paper on a global simulation of the tsunami generated by the Chicxulub impact, according to lead author and former University of Michigan graduate student Molly Ranger, and shows that the waves reached around the globe, even to what is now New Zealand.

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/dinosaur-asteroid-extinct-killed-tsunami-b2195479.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Wouldn't an asteroid that big and that fast have knocked the Earth off its orbit around the Sun?

[Duppers]

3. Interesting question

The Earth has a lot of mass and moves extremely quickly in its orbit around the Sun; in science speak, we say its ‘momentum’ is large.

To significantly change the Earth’s orbit, you would have to impart a very great change to the Earth’s momentum.

Not even the largest asteroids have sufficient mass and kinetic energy to make much of a difference to the Earth’s momentum.

Our planet’s binding energy is greater than its orbital kinetic energy.
This means that any object large enough to change the Earth’s orbit is also big enough to completely destroy it!


Yet, we are interested in stopping smaller, yet damaging asteroids.

NASA crashes spacecraft into asteroid, passing planetary defense test

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-dart-mission-hits-asteroid-in-first-ever-planetary-defense-test

[Roy Rolling]

2. Context

A 6-mile wide asteroid hit an 8,000 mile wide planet and killed 90% of life.

Doesn’t seem possible but it happened, but not likely enough to knock the Earth out of orbit into deep space.

[oldsoftie]

4. I thought this had already been a 'known" thing.

I've heard people talk abut its impact for many years now

[ToxMarz]

7. That it happened has long been known

What the exact effects it had after impact is more difficult to say for certain not having been there. I'm sure there still more we don't know, or how accurate this is for that matter. A very large worldwide tsunami would be likely though.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. The best rendition of this event...

[hwmnbn]

8. This is sooo beautiful...

Pink Floyd can make even an apocalyptic event seem cool.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. You are so correct

[speak easy]

6. A wave 300ft high vs T-Rex? T-Rex loses and

so would we. cf, a wave 15ft high at Fort Myers.