A front-row account of the dinosaur-ending asteroid impact
The article guides readers through a vivid timeline of the 66-million-year-old asteroid impact that ended the dinosaurs. It describes the instantaneous fireball, shock waves, and vaporized rocks, followed by megatsunamis, global fires, thick dust, and a prolonged ‘nuclear-winter’ like atmosphere that plunged Earth into darkness and freezing temperatures. Over the next year to decade, ecosystems collapse and mass extinctions unfold, with evidence from iridium-rich layers and the Chicxulub crater confirming the catastrophe. Eventually life recovers in new configurations, enabling mammals to rise in the long aftermath.