North Carolina Reveals Evidence of Ancient Asteroid Impact and Tsunami
Okay, so picture this: 35 million years ago, a space rock, screaming through the atmosphere at an insane speed, slams into the Atlantic near what is now Virginia. We're talking about an object roughly 3 miles wide, creating a crater so massive it's buried half a mile under Chesapeake Bay. Crazy, right?
For years, scientists have been digging into the aftermath of this cosmic collision. It's like a detective story, piecing together the clues left behind by a truly cataclysmic event. Now, researchers have found some intriguing new evidence, not near the impact site, but hundreds of miles away in North Carolina.
Far-Reaching Impact
A team of geologists, while checking out some fossils in Moore County, North Carolina, stumbled upon some weird rock layers. I mean, really weird. After some digging (pun intended!), they figured out these layers were actually forged by the asteroid impact and the resulting tsunami. Think about it: a giant asteroid hits, sending shockwaves and tsunamis all over the place. It's like something straight out of a disaster movie. This new study highlights how far the effects of such events can reach.
What's super interesting is the composition of these rock layers. The first layer is packed with carbon glass, rock fragments, and even iridium, a rare element often found in meteorites. The other layers contained silt, quartz, carbon, and even fragments of the seafloor, all arranged in a way that tells a story.
The scientists believe the first layer is from the initial impact, all that debris settling in the immediate aftermath. The second layer is finer particles that were ejected as the plume thinned. As for the third layer, well that's the record of a massive wave of seawater and sediment surging inland. Finally, the fourth layer is the return of calm, represented by clean sand and gravel deposited as the waters receded.
It's pretty amazing when you think about it, how a single event can reshape an entire region. This discovery adds another piece to the puzzle, revealing just how far-reaching the consequences of that ancient asteroid impact were.
Source: Gizmodo