Asteroid Impact's Dust Cloud Caused Mass Extinction by Charbroiling Life
Quick Look
A new study suggests the asteroid impact that led to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction was made catastrophic by a dust cloud that superheated the atmosphere, causing instant charbroiling of organisms and widespread wildfires.
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Why It Matters
The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out dinosaurs, has been linked to an asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico.
Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid impact wiped out three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth, most notably taking down the dinosaurs. But exactly how that impact caused those extinctions has been the subject of fierce debate. According to a new paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, the impact would have produced an immense cloud of dust that superheated the upper atmosphere, charbroiling living organisms unable to take shelter and igniting widespread wildfires. [...] "That much kinetic energy has to go somewhere, and eventually it is converted to heat," said Johnson. "With the dust cloud trapping thermal radiation, it was like the surface and everything on it was being charbroiled. And that’s what killed the dinosaurs and all the other animals. [...] DOI: Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences, 2026. 10.1029/2026JG009837
Open Questions
- How long did the global winter last after the impact?
