ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Research → Discoveries

Second asteroid could have also led to dinosaur extinction

There is strong evidence the dinosaurs endured a double-asteroid whammy.

Jordan StricklerbyJordan Strickler
August 25, 2022
in Anthropology, Astronomy, Biology, Discoveries, History
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

Could it be that the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not the only one to impact the Earth? How unlucky can you get?

Chances are very high that dinosaurs had to suffer two asteroid collisions. (Credit: MasterTux, Pixabay)

Turns out, the dinos could have experienced a one-two punch that they couldn’t recover from. In the journal Science Advances, researchers report finding what appears to be the scar in the eastern Atlantic Ocean of a smaller impact that occurred around the same time.

For a long time, researchers have wondered what could have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now, pretty much all evidence suggests that the big extinction event between the Cretaceous and Paleogene geological periods was caused by an extraterrestrial invasion of the asteroid kind. More specifically, the cosmic catastrophe left the Chicxulub impact crater, 180 kilometers (110 miles) wide, under the current coastline of the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. The asteroid itself was some 12 kilometers (0.62 miles) wide.

Now, scientists have found that a smaller crater located about 350 kilometers (217 miles) off the coast of Guinea and Guinea Bissau in Africa is roughly the same age as Chicxulub, and provides evidence that the two asteroids were most likely connected in leading to the demise of the dinosaurs.

“Our stratigraphic framework suggests that the crater formed at or near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, approximately the same age as the Chicxulub impact crater,” the authors wrote in their study. “We hypothesize that this formed as part of a closely timed impact cluster or by breakup of a common parent asteroid.”

The Nadir crater, named after a nearby seamount, is about nine kilometers (5.6 miles) across. Seismic data reveal the typical circular structure with a raised rim and central peak despite being buried beneath several hundred meters of sediment.

Using the crater’s position in relation to different layers of rock, the authors calculate that it is 66 million years old, with a margin of error of at least 500,000 years.

A member of the team, Veronica Bray of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, used computer modeling to propose that a 400-meter-wide asteroid could have formed Nadir Crater, resulting in widespread regional devastation and a global, 900-meter-high (2,953-foot) tsunami. 

RelatedPosts

Scientists digging into the dinosaur-killing asteroid crater answer all your questions
Oldest dinosaur embryos found in China
Jurassic Park comes to life in New Jersey. Robot-dinos!
Warm-blooded mammalian creatures first appeared 233 million years ago, and the key is in their ears

So, could there be a link to Chicxulub? In the opinion of Nicholson and his associates, it could have been caused by a trio of factors.

One possibility is that a pair of asteroids collided and caused damage. There are confirmed cases of dual impacts, such as the Lockne and Malingen craters in Sweden, which date back 470 million years, and many asteroids are known to be accompanied by small moonlets.

A second is similar situation to how Jupiter’s tidal forces tore apart Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 before the resulting fragments smashed into that planet’s atmosphere in 1994. It is possible that the original asteroid broke up into one large and several small pieces as a result of tidal forces during an earlier close encounter with Earth.

Last but not least, the team speculates about an impact cluster, similar to the one that occurred during the Ordovician period when an asteroid collision caused a greater-than-average rate of meteorite impacts over a few million years.  It’s also interesting to note that Ukraine’s 24-kilometer-wide Boltysh crater, estimated to be 65.4 million years old, may have formed as part of the same impact cluster.

“We do expect a collision of a Nadir-sized asteroid every 700,000 years or so,” the researchers wrote in The Conversation. “For now, however, we cannot definitively state that the Nadir crater was formed by an asteroid impact until we physically recover samples from the crater floor, and identify minerals that can only be formed by extreme shock pressures. To that end, we have recently submitted a proposal to drill the crater through the International Ocean Discovery Program. As with the main impact crater hypothesis, we can only test the little sister and little cousin hypotheses by accurately dating the crater using these samples, as well as by looking for other candidate craters of a similar age.”

Is it possible that something of this can also occur in the future? Although it’s highly improbable, their modeled asteroid is close in size to the Bennu asteroid currently in near-Earth orbit. There is a one-in-1,750 chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth in the next couple of centuries, making it one of the most hazardous objects in the solar system, however, there is still a 99.94% chance it won’t hit our planet. For now, we’ve got bigger problems.

Tags: chicxulubdinosaursnadir

ShareTweetShare
Jordan Strickler

Jordan Strickler

A space nerd and self-described grammar freak (all his Twitter posts are complete sentences), he loves learning about the unknown and figures that if he isn’t smart enough to send satellites to space, he can at least write about it. Twitter: @JordanS1981

Related Posts

News

The Best Archaeopteryx Fossil Ever Found Just Showed It Could Fly

byTibi Puiu
5 days ago
Geology

Did two asteroids wipe out the dinosaurs? New massive crater on Atlantic seafloor suggests a deadly double impact

byTibi Puiu
8 months ago
Geology

The catastrophic Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs created a 15-year winter

byMihai Andrei
1 year ago
News

Mammals eating dinosaurs: flipping the script on the Cretaceous food chain

byJordan Strickler
2 years ago

Recent news

The Worm That Outsourced Locomotion to Its (Many) Butts

May 16, 2025

The unusual world of Roman Collegia — or how to start a company in Ancient Rome

May 16, 2025
Merton College, University of Oxford. Located in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons

For over 500 years, Oxford graduates pledged to hate Henry Symeonis. So, who is he?

May 16, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
  • How we review products
  • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Science News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Space
  • Future
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Physics
      • Matter and Energy
      • Quantum Mechanics
      • Thermodynamics
    • Chemistry
      • Periodic Table
      • Applied Chemistry
      • Materials
      • Physical Chemistry
    • Biology
      • Anatomy
      • Biochemistry
      • Ecology
      • Genetics
      • Microbiology
      • Plants and Fungi
    • Geology and Paleontology
      • Planet Earth
      • Earth Dynamics
      • Rocks and Minerals
      • Volcanoes
      • Dinosaurs
      • Fossils
    • Animals
      • Mammals
      • Birds
      • Fish
      • Amphibians
      • Reptiles
      • Invertebrates
      • Pets
      • Conservation
      • Animal facts
    • Climate and Weather
      • Climate change
      • Weather and atmosphere
    • Health
      • Drugs
      • Diseases and Conditions
      • Human Body
      • Mind and Brain
      • Food and Nutrition
      • Wellness
    • History and Humanities
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • History
      • Economics
      • People
      • Sociology
    • Space & Astronomy
      • The Solar System
      • Sun
      • The Moon
      • Planets
      • Asteroids, meteors & comets
      • Astronomy
      • Astrophysics
      • Cosmology
      • Exoplanets & Alien Life
      • Spaceflight and Exploration
    • Technology
      • Computer Science & IT
      • Engineering
      • Inventions
      • Sustainability
      • Renewable Energy
      • Green Living
    • Culture
    • Resources
  • Videos
  • Reviews
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Editorial policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.