Chixculub: fine-tuned angle of attack? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, July 12, 2020, 22:08 (1594 days ago) @ David Turell

Simulations put the angle at sixty degrees, the perfect angle for the most effect:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200526111320.htm

"New simulations from Imperial College London have revealed the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck Earth at the 'deadliest possible' angle.

"The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere.

"Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago.

***

"Pivotal to diagnosing the angle and direction of impact was the relationship between the centre of the crater, the centre of the peak ring -- a ring of mountains made of heavily fractured rock inside the crater rim -- and the centre of dense uplifted mantle rocks, some 30 km beneath the crater.

"At Chicxulub, these centres are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, with the crater centre in between the peak-ring and mantle-uplift centres. The team's 3D Chicxulub crater simulations at an angle of 60 degrees reproduced these observations almost exactly.

"The simulations reconstructed the crater formation in unprecedented detail and give us more clues as to how the largest craters on Earth are formed. Previous fully 3D simulations of the Chicxulub impact have covered only the early stages of impact, which include the production of a deep bowl-shaped hole in the crust known as the transient crater and the expulsion of rocks, water and sediment into the atmosphere.

"These simulations are the first to continue beyond this intermediate point in the formation of the crater and reproduce the final stage of the crater's formation, in which the transient crater collapses to form the final structure. This allowed the researchers to make the first comparison between 3D Chicxulub crater simulations and the present-day structure of the crater revealed by geophysical data."

Comment: Certainly suggestive that it might have been planned. It certainy appears fine-tuning may have played a role.