Phys.org has a story about the K-Pg mass extinction event. It's well established science that a meteorite struck the Yucatan peninsula about 66 million years ago. An event that brought about the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ammonites, and many other animals that lived alongside them. There have been many theories and debates about what happened during this mass extinction. Now, some new research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, has found evidence of the extent of the wildfires that accompanied the event.
The meteorite that wiped out Earth's dinosaurs instantly ignited forest wildfires up to thousands of kilometers from its impact zone, scientists have discovered.
The six-mile-wide meteorite struck the Yucatan peninsula in what is now Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction that killed off more than 75% of living species.
Uncertainty and debate have surrounded the circumstances behind the devastating wildfires known to have been caused by the strike, with several theories as to how and when they started, and their full extent.
By analyzing rocks dating to the time of the strike, a team of geoscientists from the UK, Mexico and Brazil has recently discovered that some of the fires broke out within minutes, at most, of the impact, in areas stretching up to 2500 km or more from the impact crater.
Wildfires that broke out in coastal areas were short-lived, as the backwash from the mega-tsunami caused by the impact swept charred trees offshore.
