Everyone knows the disappearance of dinosaurs thanks to a massive asteroid that slammed on earth, which causes an extension of most species on the planet. What many may not know is another massive meteorite affected on the planet. This second impact has happened about 65 million years ago in what is now in Ukraine.
Scientists have excluded that the second impact has contributed to the extinction of dinosaurs, but the impact provide an overview of the history of the climate of the Earth. The geologists of the University of Glasgow used state-of-the-art dating techniques on samples of fondue rocks created during the impact of giant meteorite in what is known as Kivorohad Oblast of Ukraine.
The Collision Meteorite with Earth has created a gigantic 15-mile basin known as the Boltyh Impact Crater, which fills with water over time and became a lake. There are decades ago, scientists have taken samples from the crater who suggested that the meteorite had an impact between 2000 and 5000 years before the massive strike of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, which finally killed the dinosaurs. Some felt that the impact of Boltytsh could have occurred in the vicinity enough close to the impact of Chicxulub for contributing to the extinction of dinosaurs.
The new study discovers that the Ukrainian impact occurred approximately 650,000 years after the ChicxUlub event. Following the study, the results could help to better understand how the atmosphere responded to climate change in the past. The researchers selected four samples of two rock nuclei from the Ukraine impact crater containing rocks generated during the impact and sediment of the lake accumulating over time after the formation of the crater.
The age of the samples was determined using argon-argon dating, which measures the radioactive decay of potassium to argon. This decay is known as a “rock clock” on geological echelons, allowing researchers to determine when the rocks have been created. The analysis shows that the impact occurred very close to 65.39 million years, putting it firmly after the Mexican impact that killed the dinosaurs.