Artistic rendition of the Chicxulub impactor striking ancient Earth, with Pterosaur observing. Credit: NASA
Phys.org has a story about the Chicxulub asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that had the asteroid struck the Earth in a different location it is possible the non-avian dinosaurs may have survived the event. The researchers from Tokohu University analysed multiple data sources about the area surrounding the impact. The resulting simulation showed how much soot was generated by the hydrocarbons in the ground under and around the impact site.
Scientists around the world have reached a consensus regarding the reason that the dinosaurs (except for bird relatives) went extinct—a large asteroid struck the Earth just off what is now the Yucatan peninsula, hurling so much soot and other material into the atmosphere that the planet became too cold (for approximately three years) for the dinosaurs and most other land animals to survive. But now, it appears that they might have survived had the asteroid struck almost anywhere else.
To learn more about the event that had such a huge impact on the history of our planet, Kaiho and Oshima used a computer to analyze multiple data sources surrounding the impact and the location where it struck—the resulting simulation showed how much soot would have been generated based on the amount of hydrocarbon material in the ground near the impact site. Such hydrocarbons would include not just oil or coal deposits, but other rocks that also contained oil—more hydrocarbons would mean more soot and gases making their way into the atmosphere. The research pair also created a map showing surface hydrocarbon densities across the globe at the time.
They found that the site where the asteroid struck was particularly dense in hydrocarbons—87 percent of the planet surface was less dense. That means, they claim, that if the asteroid had struck a place where it was less dense (which would have been almost anywhere else), much less soot would have been generated, and thus, the planet would not have cooled as much. And if the planet had not cooled so much, the dinosaurs might have survived, and that might have meant that we humans would never have had a chance to evolve.
