Sean P. S. Gulick: The asteroid that almost wiped out life on Earth

The asteroid that almost wiped out life on Earth

Sixty-six million years ago, near what’s now the Yucatán Peninsula, a juvenile sauropod feasted on horsetail plants on a riverbank. Earth was a tropical planet. Behemoth and tiny dinosaurs alike soared its skies and roamed its lands while reptiles and tentacled ammonites swept its seas. But, in an instant, everything would change. Sean P. S. Gulick details one of Earth's most devastating periods. [Directed by directed by Jeff Le Bars, Jet Propulsion, narrated by Adrian Dannatt, music by Stephen LaRosa].

Sixty-six million years ago, a 12-kilometer-wide asteroid struck near the Yucatán Peninsula, triggering planet-wide devastation. The impact unleashed energy billions of times stronger than a nuclear bomb and created a massive crater, Chicxulub. Global darkness, caused by dust and aerosol clouds, plunged temperatures, wiped out food webs, and drove 75% of species, including nearly all dinosaurs, to extinction. Today, humanity faces its own rapid climate change, but unlike the dinosaurs, humans can still choose to act.