What if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs hit Earth today?

We all remember studying the reign of dinosaurs. To an extent, we all know how dinosaurs played a crucial role in our planet. After living for about 165 million years, these species, unfortunately, became extinct and were no more in being. About 66 million years ago these dinosaurs had an ultimate bad day. But have you ever thought what if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs hit Earth today?

HISTORY

In 2013 an asteroid hit Russia, home to over 1 million people. This atomic bomb damaged over 7000 buildings and roughly over 1500 people were severely injured. It is believed that such an asteroid will randomly hit our planet once every 60 years. Compared to the asteroids hit in the past we could say our planet has faced much worse situations. Well one of them was the asteroid that hit millions of years ago that reduced the number of dinosaurs living on our planet.

This asteroid hit so many millions of years back that now it is hard to find traces of its effects. But what would happen if the asteroid would hit the Earth all over again at the exact same location? Would we all just die?  Or how can a huge rock just spontaneously kill so many animals on our planet?

This so-called dino-killing asteroid is measured to be somewhere between 11 and 15 kilometers wide. Which is way bigger and heavier than that Mt Everest. Hypothetically speaking, imagine if Mt Everest was to hit our location, how would we survive?

It is explained by certain researchers that the asteroid that was hit was at a very high velocity and had been effectively vaporized. A huge blast wave and heatwave went out and it threw vast amounts of material up into the atmosphere. Any living being located within a radius of 1000 kilometers of the impact area would be vaporized immediately. But before the asteroid even hit our planet was facing some climatic changes which made things much harder.

 

What If The Asteroid That Wiped Out The Dinosaurs Hit Earth Today?

If the asteroid hit North America like before then the entire continent would just be destroyed within minutes and the whole place would just be on fire. Thus, wiping out life spontaneously. This shockwave can lead to a tsunami which can be about 300m tall that covers the whole land which was already burning. The smoke that is going up in the atmosphere would be so boundless that it can lead to the total continent being in darkness for some time. And may even make the entire world into a permanent haze that would last for the next 3 years approximately.

Due to the darkness and haziness happening over 3 years, plants would be severely affected as no photosynthesis will be taking place. Therefore, making it difficult for animals to rely on plants to eat and in turn will die out of hunger. Thus, creating an imbalance in nature.

So like last time if the asteroid again hits acid rain will hit the globe and the ocean’s acidity level would rapidly increase. Due to the burning ash, dying of animals, acid rain, etc happening the climatic conditions would be so bad that our globe will go into Nuclear Winter meaning our world would be freezing without any other seasons.

But after some time, the Earth will start randomly heating up and global warming will take place because of the forest fires taking place in large numbers. Thus, leaving uncountable gasses in the atmosphere. But from learning from the past we could say that Our precious blue planet is much more resilient than we are. So we could say that it wouldn’t be the end of the living era.

For more space related blogs

refer: Martian rocks that look like a teddy bear