New details about impact of massive asteroid that hit the US revealed
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Scientists have revealed new details about the impact of a massive asteroid that hit the US roughly 35 million years ago. The asteroid, between three and five miles wide, created a giant 25-mile-wide crater in what now lies beneath Chesapeake Bay, with the center located at the southern end of Northampton County near Cape Charles, Virginia.
![[The asteroid, between three and five miles wide, created a giant 25-mile crater in what now lies beneath Chesapeake Bay, with the center located at the southern end of Northampton County near Cape Charles, Virginia]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/04/16/92792525-14157137-The_asteroid_between_three_and_five_miles_wide_created_a_giant_2-a-95_1733328759884.jpg)
While slightly smaller than the event that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, researchers expected it to alter Earth's global climate similarly. Instead, they found 'our planet seemed to carry on as usual,' according to study co-author Bridget Wade with University College London (UCL).
![[Another giant asteroid that collided with what is now Russia some 25,000 years prior similarly did not disrupt Earth's climate for more than a brief period]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/04/16/92790779-14157137-Another_giant_asteroid_that_collided_with_what_is_now_Russia_som-a-96_1733328759889.jpg)
What's more, the researchers found another giant asteroid collided with what is now Russia some 25,000 years prior and only disrupted Earth's climate for a brief period. That impact left a 60-mile-wide crater - known today as the Popigai crater - in northern Siberia.
![[Evidence of the asteroid impacts were found in tiny droplets of silica, which appeared like small balls of glass. The formations were created by the intense heat released as the asteroid impacts vaporized rocks on]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/04/16/92791947-14157137-Evidence_of_the_asteroid_impacts_were_found_in_tiny_droplets_of_-a-97_1733328759967.jpg)
These two asteroid strikes formed the fourth and fifth largest known craters on Earth, and yet, they did not trigger any measurable climate changes over the following 150,000 years, the researchers concluded. 'However, our study would not have picked up shorter-term changes over tens or hundreds of years, as the samples were every 11,000 years,' Wade explained.
'Over a human time scale, these asteroid impacts would be a disaster. They would create a massive shockwave and tsunami, there would be widespread fires, and large amounts of dust would be sent into the air, blocking out sunlight.'. Roughly 35 million years ago, an enormous asteroid slammed into the ocean off the eastern coast the North American continent, but didn't cause climactic changes (STOCK).
