Impact dwarfs dinosaur-extinction blast

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Scientists reconstruct ancient impact that dwarfs dinosaur-extinction blast

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Picture this: A massive asteroid almost as wide as Rhode Island and about three to five times larger than the rock thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs slams into Earth. The collision punches a crater into the planet’s crust that’s nearly 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) across: greater than the distance from Washington, D.C. to New York City, and up to two and a half times larger in diameter than the hole formed by the dinosaur-killing asteroid. Seismic waves bigger than any recorded earthquakes shake the planet for about half an hour at any one location – about six times longer than the huge earthquake that struck Japan three years ago. The impact also sets off tsunamis many times deeper than the one that followed the Japanese quake.

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[Taun]

Glad I wasn't around for that one!...

While these massive impacts were devastating, they helped form this planet and everything that lives on it, including us... Without them, we probably would not be here today...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Without them, we probably would not be here today...

Whilst that is true they retain the potential to make all life on this planet extinct. What the asteroid giveth, the asteroid taketh away.

[taniwha]

This is a longwinded way of saying they have a theory on plate tectonics ... And not even an original theory at that! Tooo bad someone beat them to the punch line....

Im willing to bet their idea will probably resemble this 'new' theory closely....

http://post.jagran.com/researchers-reveal-theory-behind-creation-of-earths-tectonic-plates-1397023731

And older still.... Better luck next time boys !

http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/meteor-impact-may-have-intiated-plate-tectonics

Edited April 10, 2014 by taniwha