Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Antarctic Craters Reveal Asteroid Strike

Posted by michael on from the rock-of-ages dept.

dhuff writes "Scientists using satellites have mapped huge craters under the Antarctic ice sheet caused by an asteroid as big as the one believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65m years ago."

1 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. You really are missing something...... by TheAxeMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a lot of people believe that the 65m impact was centered over land NOT covered by ice and snow, as in the central point in which all current continents used to be connected (pangea).

    That impact would have crushed mountains and created enormous amounts of dust from them. The 780k impact hit a huge block of ice and snow, i.e. no dust to scatter in the first place. I really doubt it would have affected any land life at all, antarctica being so far from land inhabited by anything more than penguins and stuff. Ocean life probably got pretty roughed up at least close to the impact.