When an asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out the dinosaurs — and triggered a global tsunami, research shows.
When a city-size asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out the dinosaurs — and sent a monster tsunami rippling around the planet, according to new research.
Researchers set out to gain a better understanding of the tsunami and its reach through modeling. They found evidence to support their findings about the path and power of the tsunami by studying 120 ocean sediment cores from across the globe. A study detailing the findings was published Tuesday in the journal American Geophysical Union Advances.
"This tsunami was strong enough to disturb and erode sediments in ocean basins halfway around the globe, leaving either a gap in the sedimentary records or a jumble of older sediments," said lead author Molly Range, who began working on the study as an undergraduate student and completed it for her master's thesis at the University of Michigan.
He included the size of the asteroid and its speed, which was estimated to be moving at 26,843 miles per hour when it hit the granite crust and shallow waters of the Yucatan peninsula. Both models delivered almost the exact same results, creating a timeline of the tsunami for the research team.
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