About 66 million years ago, an asteroid, about 10 kilometers in diameter, crashed into our planet near the modern city of Chicxulub, Mexico. The impact led to an incredible explosion that created a 150-kilometer crater.
Debris was thrown into the air at an altitude of twice the height of Mount Everest, and dust and ash engulfed the entire planet, obscuring the sun and causing effects similar to nuclear winter. Countless species of living organisms have been destroyed, including all dinosaurs.
In the scientific community, there are two versions of how this all happened. The first suggests that when the asteroid hit the Earth, the subsurface rocks immediately melted, moving material from side to side. After that, the molten mass moved towards the center and rose up, creating the 'peak rings' that we can see today in Chicxulub crater. Another hypothesis, much more dramatic, suggests that liquid material rose from the earth's crust.
The site was analyzed by a team of scientists led by Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas in the United States. The researchers drilled into the crater and the very first results prompted them to think that the second version is more plausible.
Although an abundance of limestone was observed during the Cretaceous period, during which the asteroid impact is believed to have occurred, analysis of the samples showed the presence of pink granite, which is usually found deeper underground.
'It was as simple as day and night,' said Sean. 'Everyone looked at the granite and realized that it could only form from the depths. The incredible force of the impact of an asteroid can be compared to a stone falling into a pond. And it all took less than 10 minutes. '
However, many questions remained unanswered for scientists. For example, analysis showed that although the rocks moved like a liquid, they remained a solid substance. The tremendous energy from the impact changed the cohesion of the rocks, forcing them to move like a slowly flowing slurry.
A more thorough study of the soil in this area and a detailed study of the pink granite samples themselves, found below the surface, are now planned. Scientists are confident that this will help them answer the most important question: how did they manage to recover from such a cataclysm.
