A lasting impact
The effects of the Chicxulub impact were long-lasting and global
A world on fire
1 Perhaps the most widespread effect of the impact was the rise in temperatures. The kinetic energy of the ejected debris was around 20 million megatonnes. This was converted to heat as the debris fell.
Cruel seas
2 The immediate tsunami resulted in a backwash that caused further, albeit smaller, tsunamis. Earthquakes and landslides around the globe triggered other tsunamis as far away as Argentina.
Prehistoric napalm
3 Debris from the impact continued to fall, with fragments lighting wildfires, spelling doom for any animals caught out in the open. This was disastrous for terrestrial species.
Darkness falls
4 The diversity of life had already been severely truncated by the impact and its events. But perhaps more deadly was the effect of debris that did not immediately fall down…
Eternal winter
5 Dust and soot from the impact remained in the atmosphere, blocking the Sun for at least a year. Species that survived the firestorm would fall to the cold or starvation as a result of diminished vegetation.
A barren Earth
6 Evolution had taken 180 million years to build the kingdom of the dinosaurs. The Chicxulub impactor and its short and long-term effects wiped all this out within years.
A new hope…
7 Around 25 per cent of Earth’s species remained after the impact, consisting of scattered individuals. These lucky survivors would begin the world’s repopulation, setting the scene for the next 66 million years of evolution.