Topic

#Chicxulub and mass extinctions

The impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs, and how impacts shape life on Earth.

Lessons (1)

Craters: when big rocks hitMost meteorites land quite gently, but every so often a much larger space rock hits the ground hard and blasts out a huge hole called an imp

Impacts in Earth's historyImpacts have shaped Earth from its formation to the present. This lesson looks at craters, the end of the dinosaurs, modern airbursts and ho
Extinction and the fossil recordExtinction can be caused by new predators, disease, competition or catastrophic events.
How the Solar System formedThe Sun and planets formed from a cloud of gas and dust about 4.6 billion years ago.
Dinosaurs and the giant space rockA very long time ago, a giant space rock hit Earth. It changed the world and helped to end the time of the dinosaurs.
Rocks from spaceSometimes a bigger space rock does not burn up. A piece lands on the ground. It is called a meteorite.
The end of the dinosaursAbout 66 million years ago an asteroid struck Earth and helped end the age of the dinosaurs.
Key Stage 2: Rocks from spaceTwelve lessons on meteorites for Years 3 to 6: what they are, where they come from, how to test a rock like a scientist, craters, the end of
Impacts, environmental change and extinctionAbout 66 million years ago an asteroid impact changed Earth's environment so fast that three quarters of species died out.

How an impact crater formsContact, excavation and collapse: how a fast-moving asteroid blasts out a bowl, and why big craters end up with central peaks and rings.

Space Rocks You Can TouchMost meteorites are 4,567 million years old, older than any rock on Earth. This book explains how a space rock crosses the atmosphere at up

IridiumA refractory metal found in tiny nuggets in the oldest inclusions, and the tell-tale element of impacts.

Could an asteroid wipe out life on Earth?A very large impact could cause a mass extinction, as one did 66 million years ago, but sterilising the whole planet would need an object fa
Did dinosaurs see shooting stars?Yes! Shooting stars have been happening for billions of years, so dinosaurs would have seen them on clear nights, just as we do.
How can I teach mass extinctions using the Chicxulub impact?Use the evidence chain, iridium layer, shocked quartz, spherules and the buried crater, to show how scientists linked an asteroid to the end
What happened to the asteroid that hit the dinosaurs?It was mostly destroyed in the impact, vaporising and melting. It left a huge crater, now buried under Mexico, and a thin layer of dust arou
What killed the dinosaurs?Most scientists agree that the main cause was an asteroid about 10 km across that struck Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago

BoltyshBoltysh is a buried impact crater in central Ukraine, in the Kirovohrad region. You cannot see it at the surface, where it lies beneath fiel
ChicxulubChicxulub is the crater that ended the age of the dinosaurs. About 66 million years ago an asteroid roughly 10 km across struck the shallow
KaraThe Kara structure lies on the Arctic coast of Russia, at the northern end of the Pai-Khoi hills near the Kara Sea, west of the Ural Mountai
MansonManson, in north-west Iowa, is one of the largest impact structures in the United States, a crater about 35 km across hidden completely bene

Chicxulub: the end of the dinosaursThe impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago an asteroid about 10 km wide struck a shallow sea at the edge of
ManicouaganA ring-shaped lake visible from space. Manicouagan in Quebec is one of the best preserved large impact structures on Earth.
VredefortThe largest impact structure known on Earth. Vredefort is the biggest impact scar on our planet.

Alan HildebrandThe Canadian scientist who, in 1991, identified the buried Chicxulub crater in Mexico as the impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
Glen PenfieldThe oil company geophysicist who found a giant buried ring under Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula in 1978, later shown to be the Chicxulub cra
Luis AlvarezThe Nobel prize-winning physicist who, with his son Walter, proposed in 1980 that an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs.
Walter AlvarezThe geologist who found the iridium-rich clay at Gubbio and, with his father Luis, linked the end of the dinosaurs to an impact.