Global Firestorm may Have Killed the Dinosaurs after Massive Asteroid Slammed into Earth

When a massive asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico, it caused a chain of events that wiped out the last of the dinosaurs. Yet now, new research reveals that the impact may have had far more devastating consequences than at first thought. It could have triggered a global firestorm that would have scorched the surface of the Earth, leading to the extinction of 80 percent of our world's species.

In order to better understand the event that killed the dinosaurs, researchers examined sedimentation found at the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg boundary, around 66 million years ago--the time when the cosmic missile hit Earth. The resulting crash carved out the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The crater itself is more than 110 in diameter--impressive by any standard.

This latest theory essentially revolves around the idea that the asteroid generated immense heat during its flight in Earth's atmosphere. The impact would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth's atmosphere. The re-entering of this ejected material would have then heated the upper atmosphere and caused it to glow red for several hours at roughly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit--the temperature of an oven broiler element. This "heat pulse" would have led to conditions that most creatures couldn't survive--a firestorm that would have killed any life not located in the water or beneath the ground.

It sounds a bit farfetched, but the researchers claim that they have evidence to support their theory. In particular, they point out that while some of the radiation from the red glow was blocked by the falling material, enough radiation would have reached Earth's surface to cause searing conditions. In addition, the researchers examined material located during the K-Pg boundary for charcoal. After accounting for changing sedimentation rates, they found an excess amount of the material during the period.

"Our data show the conditions back then are consistent with widespread fires across the planet," said Douglas Robertson, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Those conditions resulted in 100 percent extinction rates for about 80 percent of all life."

There are some that argue that the layer of soot found at the K-Pg boundary layer was created by the impact itself. Not so, say the researchers. They calculated that the amount of soot was simply too high to have been caused by the impact.

Whether a global firestorm happened or not, though, is still anyone's guess. Future research will need to be conducted before any firm conclusions are made.

The current study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.