Unique evidence links meteorite impact in Mexico to global extinction

Researchers find asteroid dust in impact crater that signalled end of dinosaurs VUB professor Steven Goderis and his team have published unique evidence linking the extinction of dinosaurs to the impact of an asteroid 66 million years ago. For the first time, the scientists found evidence of dust remnants from an asteroid in the Chicxulub impact crater itself in Mexico. With this discovery, not only can the global end of the dinosaurs be attributed with greater certainty to this impact, it can also ascertain how quickly the process occurred. In just 20 years, the dust released by the impact had already settled back down on Earth. This probably allowed new species of flora and fauna to recover faster after mass extinction than previously thought. An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has traced the global asteroid dust layer to within the Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico. "We have finally come full circle,' says Steven Goderis, a lecturer in geochemistry at VUB and lead author of the study.