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☄ Meteoritos e impactos

Chicxulub impact

66 millones de años · Yucatán, Mexico

Datación geológica aproximada. El mapa muestra la ubicación actual; se desconoce una fecha exacta de calendario.

Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth near the present-day Yucatán Peninsula. The Chicxulub crater is approximately 180 kilometres wide and largely buried. Iridium-rich boundary layers, shocked quartz and crater drilling link the impact to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, including non-avian dinosaurs. Dust and aerosols disrupted climate and food chains. Researchers also study the contribution of Deccan Traps volcanism; birds survived as a dinosaur lineage.

Fuentes: NASA — Sediment Swirls Off the Yucatán