The asteroid that ended the dinosaurs’ reign might not have been a rock at all — but something far stranger. Scientists now believe the Chicxulub impactor was a giant mudball, rich in carbon and water, that came hurtling in from beyond Jupiter’s orbit. But the real shock came from deep beneath Louisiana, where new 3D seismic scans revealed “megaripples”—underwater waves frozen in stone, each as tall as a five-story building. These ancient scars prove that the impact’s tsunamis were far more violent than anyone imagined. And if that’s true, the asteroid itself may have been much bigger than we ever thought. This discovery changes everything we know about how Earth’s greatest extinction unfolded. 🌊💥 Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
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00:00So yeah, a giant asteroid fell to Earth and destroyed all dinosaurs with a blast wave.
00:07That's what we've all heard.
00:09It was a terrible disaster, but it was actually much worse.
00:13You can't even imagine how unfortunate it was for dinosaurs and what kind of disaster they faced.
00:19It wasn't just a piece of solid rock from space, but a lump of molten clay.
00:25It provoked not just a tsunami, but giant mud waves.
00:29It filled the atmosphere not only with a burnt smell, but also with an acidic and foul smell of rotten eggs.
00:37It didn't just sweep everything away with a blast wave.
00:40It provoked a volcanic winter, poisoned the air, and blocked the sun.
00:44And do you know what the most unfortunate thing was?
00:48If the angle of the fall had been just a little bit different, or if it had fallen a little further away,
00:54then there might not have been any global catastrophe.
00:57That asteroid, the size of Mount Everest, fell in the coastal part of the Yucatan Peninsula.
01:03This place separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea.
01:07The asteroid touched both solid rock and water and immediately triggered strong tsunamis and mega ripples.
01:15These are large sand waves that are normally about 3 feet long on average and leave a pattern similar to dunes on the seabed.
01:22Oh, by the way, they're really called sub-aqueous dunes.
01:26So, when the meteorite fell, it formed 52-foot-high mega ripples.
01:32Can you imagine?
01:33Giant waves of sea mud that are almost as high as a five-story building.
01:38But how did the scientists figure it out?
01:41They used 3D seismic data and modeled the mega ripples pattern in the program.
01:45The data was based on the landscape of the bottom, which was impacted 66 million years ago.
01:52First, a powerful strike triggered a strong earthquake that liquefied the seabed layer.
01:58And then, a high-grade tsunami triggered those mega ripples.
02:02That is, while giant waves on the surface flooded the land and went into open waters,
02:07large mud waves destroyed the seabed.
02:09Ancient fish, dinosaurs, and other underwater creatures didn't stand a chance.
02:16But what does this information tell us?
02:18Well, first, studying the effects of ancient tsunamis helps to reconstruct the past of our planet.
02:24Secondly, it helps us to be prepared if something like this happens in the future.
02:29Predicting a scenario like this could save countless lives in case of danger.
02:35Okay, there was a total mess in the water at the time of impact.
02:38But what was happening on land was much, much worse and scarier.
02:44But let's discuss the meteorite itself first and what it consisted of.
02:48The scientists analyzed the rocks at the impact site and saw traces of carbonaceous chondrites.
02:55This is the rock that makes up most of the meteorites in space.
02:58Often, this rock contains water, clay, and organic compounds with carbon.
03:02It means that, in a sense, a lump of dirt the size of the highest mountain on the planet fell on Earth.
03:09And yes, carbonaceous chondrites often have an unusual smell of rotten eggs, tar, or wet egg.
03:16So it wasn't just very loud, but it also probably smelled bad.
03:21It was a fetid rocket on a planetary scale.
03:24However, at the time of the fall, not a single living creature was there to sniff it.
03:29All of them lost their lives in the first seconds of the disaster, hit by the devastating blast wave.
03:36It set a chain of events that later wiped out all the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth.
03:41The peninsula where the meteorite fell turned into a large crater in an instant.
03:46Thousands of tons of soot and ash were released into the air.
03:49A huge area was filled with thick smoke.
03:52The sky turned gray.
03:54Black clouds obscured the sun.
03:56But wait, where did the ashes come from?
03:59The crash site contained huge reserves of flammable materials.
04:03In simple words, the meteorite fell into a giant barrel of fuel, which started to burn.
04:09The sky remained dark.
04:11Grass, plants, trees, and bacteria couldn't get enough sunlight.
04:15The green world began to wither.
04:17And this affected not only the impact site, but almost the entire continent.
04:23Even dinosaurs living far away felt the low temperatures and lack of ultraviolet light.
04:29Dinosaurs couldn't survive in such conditions.
04:32The environment was changing too fast.
04:35Then it got even worse.
04:37A firestorm was spreading in all directions from the place where the meteorite had fallen.
04:42The air inside the storm was poisonous and dangerous to inhale.
04:46And you know why?
04:47Because the meteorite fell in a coastal area and destroyed the seabed.
04:52And under that seabed, there were large reserves of sulfur.
04:56This toxic mass rose into the air, mixed with ash, soot, red-hot pieces of rock, and meteorite particles.
05:03Then the winds picked up this cloud and began to spread it across the continent.
05:07The rainforests that survived the blast waves were still in danger, as the hot, toxic cloud rained down red-hot ash upon them.
05:15This caused large-scale fires.
05:18The smoke from the burning trees rose and became part of the destructive cloud.
05:23The more trees burned, the larger and thicker the poisonous ash cloud grew.
05:28What could have stopped this catastrophe?
05:30Rain clouds filled with water, right?
05:33Good point, but they didn't.
05:35When the hot ash and sulfur fumes mixed with water, they created acid rain, a downpour of poisonous, corrosive mud that wiped out all life around it.
05:46Fires, firestorm, acid rain, sun blockage.
05:49How could dinosaurs survive after that?
05:52Where could they escape?
05:53Perhaps the ocean shore?
05:55Bad idea.
05:57Yeah, the water could have protected them from the fire and ashes, but there was another problem.
06:01Do you remember mega ripples and giant tsunamis?
06:05A huge wave that hit the shore at that moment could easily wash away New York.
06:10Smaller waves rolled across the Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific.
06:14So, if dinosaurs on land had tried to hide near the shore, they would have been swept away like specks of dust by that giant tsunami.
06:23But what about underwater dinosaurs?
06:25They were not affected by the tsunami and the fire cloud, but they were trapped.
06:31Red-hot, poisoned particles of ash and mud fell into the ocean in huge quantities and poisoned the water.
06:37Algae and photoplankton were destroyed.
06:40Because of this, millions of fish lost their food supply.
06:44And as a result, larger fish and marine dinosaurs were left with nothing to eat.
06:49Large-scale famine triggered extinction in the ocean.
06:52Toxic particles poisoned the water for many marine life forms.
06:57The gills of fish couldn't extract pure oxygen from the water, which only worsened the situation.
07:03Near the Yucatan Peninsula, the ocean floor, with its coral reefs and ancient sea creatures, was destroyed.
07:09This huge part of Earth's biodiversity disappeared, upsetting the balance of the oceans.
07:15Of course, the destruction couldn't go on forever.
07:18At one point, the ashes cooled and settled to the ground.
07:22The sulfur cloud dispersed, the fires went out, and the air became clearer.
07:27Warm rays of sunlight began to shine down on Earth again.
07:31But there was something sinister about the silence.
07:34The planet no longer heard the rustle of pterodactyl wings, the roar of a hungry Tyrannosaurus,
07:40and the noise of a Velociraptor's fast feet.
07:43The storm had passed, along with the dinosaurs.
07:48By the way, some flying lizards and small animals survived.
07:52Later, they evolved into modern mammals and birds.
07:56It wasn't the meteorite that destroyed dinosaurs.
07:59Fires couldn't do it either.
08:01Dinosaurs disappeared because of the famine caused by the catastrophe.
08:05Disruption of the food chain led to the mass extinction of these magnificent lizards.
08:10After the catastrophe, life began to blossom again.
08:14However, the emergence of large mammals was still a long way off.
08:18But now, millions of years have passed.
08:21Large elephants, rhinos, and other animals walk on Earth,
08:25along with the most unique mammal on the planet, the human.
08:29That's it for today.
08:30So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:35Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!
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