The massive asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs also triggered mega-earthquakes that lasted months.
Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid approximately 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) across smashed into Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula, plunging the planet into darkness and causing a mass extinction that wiped out 80% of animal life — including all the non-avian dinosaurs.
The tremendous mega-quake caused by the collision left its mark in rocks around the Gulf of Mexico, according to new research presented Sunday (Oct. 9) at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA).
Hermann Bermúdez, a geology doctoral student at Montclair State University in New Jersey, discovered rock layers in Colombia, Mexico, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi that are deformed and cracked as a result of the quake, and some that are filled with rubble left behind by giant tsunamis generated by the impact.
