March 5, 2010
A “dream team” of 45 internationally recognized scientists have concluded that a massive asteroid that hit the earth 65.5 million years ago is the culprit for the extinction of the dinosaurs and other lost species. An estimated 7.5 mile-wide asteroid, traveling at an extremely fast speed hit the earth releasing a billion times more energy than the Hiroshima atom bomb. The impact alone triggered large wildfires, obliterated forests, and started massive earthquakes and tsunamis all over the world.
The asteroid is blamed for wiping out more than half of all species on Earth. The “H-T boundary dream team” research findings were published today, March 5, in the journal Science. Co-author and spokesman for the team, Kirk Johnson, said the impact “shrouded the planet in darkness and caused a global winter, killing off many species that couldn’t adapt to the hellish environment.”
More about the team’s discoveries can be read at LATimes.com.