The End of the Dinosaurs

THIS ARTICLE in The Conversation gives a minute by minute account of what happened when the asteroid struck. And it tells how the impact led to the death of the dinosaurs and the rise of the mammals. And it is co-written by Mike Benton and Monica Grady, so it is most probably correct! (At least at the time of writing.)

The article is well worth reading. If you are content with a summary, below is Google Gemini's.

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The Immediate Aftermath (T+0 to 5 Minutes)

The asteroid, traveling faster than the speed of sound, hit the Yucatán Peninsula with the force of billions of Hiroshima bombs. If you were within 1,000 miles, you didn't hear the impact; you were vaporized by the thermal radiation before the sound waves could even reach you.

Within minutes, supersonic winds—stronger than any Category 5 hurricane—flattened entire forests. The atmosphere briefly turned into an oven, reaching temperatures of over 200°C (400°F).

The Environmental Collapse (T+1 Hour to 1 Week)

As the crust rebounded from the impact, it formed a crater 30 kilometres deep, launching molten rock into space. This material rained back down as "impact spherules," igniting global wildfires.

Then came the "stinky" phase. The asteroid hit a region rich in sulphur, blasting massive amounts of it into the sky. Combined with the smoke from burning forests and decaying carcasses, the entire planet likely smelled like rotting vegetables and acrid smoke.

The Long Winter

The soot and sulphur created a global shroud, blocking the sun for years. Photosynthesis stopped. The oceans became acidic from nitrogen oxides, and the planet plunged into a deep freeze.

It is a humbling reminder of our planet’s fragility. While this Armageddon wiped out the giants, it left a tiny opening for small, burrowing mammals—our ancestors—to survive. Without that terrible Tuesday, humans might never have had the chance to walk the Earth.

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A Visualisation by Google Gemini

This visualization focuses on the global environmental shift. The sky is no longer blue but choked with thick, black soot and sulphate aerosols. This dense layer blocks the sun, plunging the planet into darkness. The illustration visualizes the "smell" described in the research by depicting the air itself as a visual fog of acid rain, illuminated by the low, dim, hellish glow of widespread global wildfires.