The giant asteroid that hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs was not alone. Impressive results of the study

Scientists say that the giant asteroid that hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not alone. A scan of an underwater crater in West Africa suggests that it was formed when another large asteroid slammed into the planet around the same time at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The powerful impact between 65 and 67 million years ago created a crater more than 8 kilometers in diameter, the researchers say. The asteroid was more than 400 meters wide and hit the Earth at a speed of almost 73,000 kilometers per hour, The Guardian reports.

Even though the newly discovered asteroid was smaller than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, it was still large enough to leave scars on the planet's surface, scientists say.

"The new images paint a picture of a catastrophic event," said Dr Uisdean Nicholson, a marine geologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh who first discovered Nadir Crater in 2022. At the time, however, the details of the impact were unclear.

To better understand the impact of the asteroid, scientists used 3D seismic images and mapped the crater rim and geological scars that lie 300 meters below the ocean floor. "There are about 20 confirmed sea craters around the world, and none of them have been mapped with this level of detail," Nicholson said.

The researchers found that the collision caused intense tremors that liquefied sediments beneath the ocean floor, causing faults to form beneath the seafloor. The impact triggered landslides with damage visible for thousands of square kilometers beyond the crater rim and caused a huge tsunami over 800 meters high.

Researchers cannot pinpoint exactly when the asteroid hit the Earth, but the discovery of the crater and its estimated age have prompted speculation that it could have belonged to a cluster of collisions at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The asteroid associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs was much larger than the rock that formed the Nadir Crater. It left a 160-kilometer-wide crater in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

"The new three-dimensional seismic data across Nadir Crater is an unprecedented opportunity to test hypotheses of impact craters, develop new models of their formation in the marine environment, and understand the impact of such an event," summarized Uisdean Nicholson.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!