The Day the Dinosaurs Died

For the first time, scientists have drilled into the heart of the Chicxulub crater – the landing site of the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs. We look at what their historic mission might find.

- Henry Nicholls

The meteorite left a crater 200km across when it smashed into the planet. Today, this geological scar lies buried beneath the Yucatán Peninsula Core 40. To the untrained eye, this three-metre section of rock winched up from a bore hole beneath the Gulf of Mexico might not look like much. But for Sean Gulick, a geologist at the University of Texas at Austin, it’s a sample that holds secrets about one of the most catastrophic events in the history of planet Earth.

For Gulick, the core will tell him the story of the day the Earth shook. Sixty-six million years ago, a 14km wide meteorite slammed into our planet. Wildfires raged, earthquakes rumbled, and a dusty curtain fell upon the Earth. It was the beginning of the end for around 75 per cent of the planet’s species, including all non-avian dinosaurs.

Travelling at 20km per second when it entered Earth’s atmosphere, the meteorite left a crater 200km across when it smashed into the planet. Today, this geological scar lies buried beneath the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico – and now, for the first time, we’ve drilled into its heart.

Throughout April and May, Gulick was stationed on a drilling rig just off the Yucatán Peninsula. He’s the co-chief scientist on Expedition 364, the joint project by International Continental Drilling Program and the International Ocean Discovery Program to drill down into the Chicxulub impact crater. On this boat-cum drilling platform, 30km off the Mexican coast, his team have worked day and night to bore down to over 1.3km beneath the seabed to extract precious cores of rock.