Sixty - six million age ago , an asteroid roughly 14 kilometers ( 9 miles ) in diameter strike the shallow body of water off the modern - day Yucatan peninsula in Mexico . Chicxulub , as it is acknowledge , was the size of a sight and moving as fast as a speeding slug . When it hit the water , its top was still higher than airplane cruising altitude . The destruction it caused was utmost . It pass over out three - quarter of all specie , including non - avian dinosaurs and fly reptiles .
Now , researchers have produce thefirst spheric simulationof the tsunamis that followed the Chicxulub impact . The team modeled what happened 10 minutes after the impact . The volcanic crater was around 1.5 kilometers ( 1mile ) deep , and all the piss was pushed out on wallop . Then the water rushed back into the crater , meeting the Earth ’s crust that was pushed up by the encroachment , before rushing back out , form the " flop wafture " . This type of displacement tsunami is known as amegatsunami .
" As far as we know , we are the first to globally model the tsunami from impact to the terminal of waving propagation , " top author Molly Range , from the University of Michigan , toldLive Science . " It was n’t until startle this project that I realized the real exfoliation of this tsunami , and it ’s been a fun inquiry report to share . "
The first undulation was guess to be an unbelievable 1.5 kilometers ( 1 mile ) in tallness , but the ones that followed were also Brobdingnagian . The model testify that in the first 24 hours , these tidal waves spread from the Gulf of Mexico to both the North Atlantic and the Pacific ocean ( the Americasweren’t connectedback then ) . The complexness of the model increase by the 48 hours mark as wave reflected and refract around the earth .
The squad estimated that the impact tidal undulation was at least 2,600 time more gumptious than the December 26 , 2004 , Indian Ocean Tsunami , which is one of the largest tsunamis on record . Upper limit put the energy proportion at a routine over 10 metre high . The squad also paint a picture that the tsunamis might have disturbed sediments over 6,000 klick ( 3,700 miles ) aside from the impact origin and the sea and oceans experienced waves 14 meters ( 46 feet ) high in both the North Atlantic and South Pacific . In some spots in the Gulf of Mexico , the waves were up to 100 meters ( 330 foot ) high .
The subject area , yet to be published , was presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington in December . A follow - up study is also awaiting publishing , which will support the model with evidence of the predicted sediment hurly burly .
[ H / T : Live scientific discipline ]
