Previous research suggested that the winter impact was mainly caused by massive amounts of sulfur particles released during the impact, and by soot from forest fires after the impact. But the new study gives a much greater role to particulate matter, so-called silicate dust. This is evident from research into the grain size.
In North Dakota, in the northern US, the researchers collected ancient sediment samples. These are remnants of the consequences of the impact at that time, which have been preserved in certain layers of the earth. They studied the upper, millimeter-thin interval that forms the boundary layer between the Cretaceous and the Paleogene. The boundary between those geological epochs marks the period of the meteorite impact and its consequences.
Although it concerns only a very thin layer in the soil, the researchers learned a lot thanks to measurements by laser diffraction analyzes of the grain size.
2023-10-30 16:00:00
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