What Happened When The Asteroid Hit?

What was it like when the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs? What happened on that fateful day and the days following? Considering that asteroids are still out there and still pose a threat, it might be good to take a look at the best theories as to what happened and consider how we would fare today.

Mount Everest-Sized Asteroid

On that fated day, the Mount Everest-sized planet killer violently crashed down in what is now Mexico, coming in hot at over twenty kilometers per SECOND. The heat from its fiery trip through the atmosphere vaporized everything around its landing zone, including even the rocks themselves.

Energy equal to one billion atomic bombs pummeled the Earth, destroying anything and everything within a thousand kilometers. The massive landing sent dust and molten debris hurtling through the stratosphere as the Earth itself resounded from the impact.

After The Impact

Within an hour of the touchdown, molten rock and hastily formed glass rained down on the surface. This super heated version of brimstone pelted bewildered and confused dinosaurs across the globe. As the debris fell back down through the atmosphere they turned incandescent red from the friction with the air, lighting up the sky in a fiery light show.

When it struck the earth the supercharged dust mixed with molten rock to create fiery sandstorms that ignited the vegetation. Earth itself was on fire, and there was nowhere to escape the inferno.

The energy imparted to the Earth on impact was transferred through the land to the oceans, and five hundred meter high mega tsunamis were soon smashing against the coasts worldwide. Even the world’s lakes were ravaged, fed by huge earthquakes rippling across the globe.

Within hours anything close to the coast line was destroyed, along with the coast line itself. But by sheer luck a large part of the inland and displaced Lizard Empire was still alive, surviving the initial blast.

Days Following

Within a couple days the Earth was covered in soot and fine dust, completely choking out any sunlight. Over the next few years processes that depended on photosynthesis failed as the world continued to be covered by dust and cold for the fifteen years.

The large herbivores that depended on foliage for their food source would not even last that long, with the few survivors failing to find enough food to sustain them. They would be dead within a few weeks.

The surviving apex dinosaurs, the meat eaters, did fare slightly better. They could scavenge for their newfound food supply, eating the fallen herbivores. They would last a few months, but soon the available food source would be gone or rotted, leaving them fighting over what was left. Soon they too would be, as geologists like to say, extinct.

Some Life Survived

But luckily not everything perished on that day or soon after. While over 80% of the Earth’s species had collapsed over that time period, it was left with enough living specimens to begin the process anew, leading to life as we know it.

You may or may not believe in all of the theory of evolution, but one thing is certain – the threat that comes from an asteroid strike is very real, and even the best planning may fall short if we stick to only a single planet for survival.