Research shows that the impact of an asteroid impact killing the dinosaurs led to a ‘massive earthquake’ for a month.

The devastating asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs may have triggered a powerful “massive earthquake” that shook the Earth for months on end.

66 million years ago, a massive body from the solar system – now known as the Chicxulub asteroid – collided with Earth, drilling a huge 180-kilometre (110 mi) crater in what would later become the Yucatan Peninsula.

This collision caused a catastrophic chain of events that, when combined with the devastation caused by the first strike, wiped out 75 percent of life on Earth.

Duel dinosaurs photo gallery

Now, new research analyzing geological records from this traumatic period in our planet’s history has revealed that the devastating impact may have caused a “massive earthquake” that lasted for weeks, or even months, before receding.

The research was presented October 9 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America by Hermann Bermudez of Montclair State University — one of the scientists who worked on the study.

In 2014, Bermúdez discovered a series of small glass spheres and fragments, about 1 millimeter in size, buried among sediments on Gorgonilla Island, which is off the west coast of Colombia.

These small relics formed on the day the Chicxulub asteroid hit the surface. The impact threw huge amounts of molten material high into the atmosphere, which later coalesce, cools, and then returns to Earth in the form of irregularly shaped glass balls and debris.

At the time the asteroid hit, the site Bermudez dug was actually underwater. Despite the fact that it was located about 3,000 kilometers (1,860 mi) from the impact site, the underwater scene was strongly distorted by the event. Traces of this deformation – which extended 10 to 15 meters (30 – 50 ft) underground – are still visible to this day.

Bermúdez and colleagues have also documented faults, cracks, and evidence of a process called liquefaction — in which water-saturated sediment flows freely like water under the influence of earthquake shaking — in Mexico and the United States.

According to a Geological Society of America (GSA) press release explaining the presentation, the earthquake that shook the Earth following the extinction event was about 50,000 times more powerful than the 9.1-magnitude earthquake that devastated Sumatra in 2004.

The researchers found that the turbulence caused by the vibration extended through the layer of sediment from the point where the asteroid impacted, up to where the team found the tiny glass spheres on Gorgonella Island.

Geological evidence shows that a powerful earthquake should have lasted for weeks, or even months, that would have taken flying debris through the atmosphere, and thus the ocean environment, to settle to the sea floor.

Just above this layer, the team discovered spores from ferns, indicating that the environment had stabilized enough at this point to allow plant life to re-establish itself.

The damage caused by the earthquake could have added to the devastation caused by the powerful tsunamis and the circulation of atmospheric debris caused by the event.

NASA and its partners recently completed the world’s first planetary defense mission – the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – in which it smashed into a spacecraft on the surface of a distant asteroid in an attempt to alter its orbital path.

The agency hopes that this mission will be the first step in developing an effective strategy that could one day save our race – and all life on Earth – from the dangers of colliding with another potentially devastating asteroid.

Be sure to check out IGN’s science page to stay up to date with the latest and weirdest developments in the world of science.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer at IGN

Image credit: Vadim Sadovsky

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