Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact Was Worse Than We Thought

Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula in Central America, forming the Chicxulub crater and wiping out the dinosaurs in what is known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event. But two new pieces of research suggest that this impact was even more cataclysmic than was previously believed. 

A new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters shows that up to three times as much sulphur may have been released into the atmosphere as a result of the impact than previous models have suggested. This would have led to a longer period of global cooling, which helps to explain the devastating effects on the Earth’s fauna at the time.