Before an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, Earth experienced a short burst of intense volcanism
Friday, December 12, 2014 - 07:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid more than five miles wide smashed into the Earth at 70,000 miles per hour, instantly vaporizing upon impact. The strike obliterated most terrestrial life, including the dinosaurs, in a geological instant: Heavy dust blocked out the sun, setting off a cataclysmic chain of events from the bottom of the food chain to the top, killing off more than three-quarters of Earth's species—or so the popular theory goes.