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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