About 66 million years ago, an asteroid several kilometers in diameter hit our Earth. The impact put not only end to the reign of the dinosaurs, but also exterminated, more broadly, about three quarters of the species – both animal and plant – then living on our Planet. And a few years ago, scientists speculated that the collision could have caused a gigantic tsunami. A hypothesis confirmed more recently. A scenario to which University of Michigan researchers (United States) today provide some details.
For the first time, they simulated the global impact of this tsunami. And discovered that it was characterized by high waves one kilometer that traveled across the ocean floor to thousands of kilometers from the impact site in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico).
Evidence found in the geological records of more than one hundred sites around the world confirms this. In particular, the researchers present observations made on the eastern coasts of the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Islands directly in the trajectory of their new simulation and whose heavily disturbed and incomplete sediments probably sign the magnitude of the tsunami that swept across the entire planet some 66 million years ago.
A tsunami of unparalleled violence
To get an idea of the violence of the event, researchers have calculated that the initial energy of the tsunami produced by the impact of the asteroid responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs was up to 30,000 times greater than that of tsunami sad memory that rocked the Indian Ocean in December 2004, killing more than 230,000 people.
Researchers locate the point of…
Read more on Futura” class=”link”>> Read more on Futura
Read also on Futura