NEWS FLASH: It’s official! It was an asteroid that wiped all the dinosaurs and other lovely prehistoric creatures off the Earth. The new study was conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science.
To be more specific, the culprit was a 15 kilometre (9 mile) wide chunk of space rock that slammed its body into the surface of the Earth, causing HUGE earthquakes (over 10 Richters! :o) ), volcanic eruptions, large-scale fires and continental landslides which caused towering tsunamis. Any organisms which survived the natural disasters were soon killed off by the “hellish” environment that became of the Earth: extreme global winter and darkness, due to the blast of shrapnel-like atmospheric dust.
Geological records show this event, which killed the dinos, rapidly destroyed marine and land ecosystems, says the report, and the asteroid hit “is the only plausible explanation for this.”
The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
For more info about this catastrophic *kaboom*, check out this website that has a Google Earth program along with information depicting the impact effects at Chicxulub.
I find it strange how we can say "Its official. (This event) for-100%- sure happened like this, and we can back it up with science." How can we ever be sure, if we weren't there to witness it, and we have no knowledge to base it on except that which we ourselves have invented?
That is an excellent comment! I see what you are saying: How do we know 100% for sure?
Well, for as far back as we can tell, the research and records of scientists throughout the ages seem to lead to this conclusion. Tracking systems of the Earth's tectonic plates' motion have been set up and we can see where the continents once fit together and their drift as well as determine (approximately) where the force hit. And in this spot, it appears that they have found a MASSIVE asteroid.
Scientifically speaking, the numbers seem to add up 🙂
However, I don't mean to say that this is the only answer and all other hypotheses and theories are wrong. For example, take a look at the theories of our solar system: For the longest time everyone believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe, but Galileo helped to prove that we are, in fact, a solarcentric orbit.
Things that are official aren't 100%, but they are close enough (for the current knowledge) to be socially acceptable.