Climate scientist studied how the dinosaurs died after the well-known impact of a large asteroid and blocking the sunlight for several years. They have reconstructed how tiny droplets of sulfuric acid formed high up in the air. 66 million years ago the extinction of dinosaurs caused the ascendance of the mammals. Eventually resulting for the human domination on earth.
After the impact of the large asteroid, plants started to die, following the death of other organisms in the food web. Previous theories say that it is caused by the short-lived dust ejected by the impact. But the new computer simulation shows that the droplets resulted in long-lasting cooling, which contributed to the elements that caused the death of the dinosaurs.
An additional researched reasons that contributed to why dinosaurs died is the dynamic mixing of the ocean, caused by the cooling of the surface of its surface, causing massive disturbance to the marine ecosystem. Julia Brugger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, she is the lead author of the study to be published in Geophysical Research Letters. She said that the big chill following the impact of the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater in Mexico is a turning point in Earth history.
According to the Science Daily, Julia Brugger said that we can now contribute other information as to how the dinosaur extinction during the end of the Cretaceous era. To investigate the wonder, the researchers for the first time used a specific kind of computer simulation normally applied in different contexts. A climate model, uniting the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice.
Their research showed that sulfur- bearing gases that evaporated from the violent asteroid impact on our planet's surface. This is believed to be the main cause why the sunlight was being blocked, causing massive cooling on earth. Brugger said that during these times it became really cold. The global annual mean surface air temperature dropped by at least 26 degrees Celsius.
Dinosaurs were used to living in lush climate. But after the impact the annual average temperature dropped to lower than the freezing point. Even in the tropic regions on earth experienced a massive temperature change from 27 degrees to a mere five degrees. The long-term cooling caused by the sulfate aerosols is the major factor that caused the dinosaur extinction and not mainly about the dust that stays in the atmosphere for only a relatively short time.
It took 30 years before the climate recovered from the massive change. According to the Eureka Alert, that this study illustrates that climate is for all life forms. And that ironically the climate change we are experiencing today is because of human-made global warming. Dinosaurs died due to the freezing and darkness caused by the asteroid impact killing most of the life forms including the food web.
