The impact spewed rock so high, some of it likely was shot into orbit, whereas other pieces entered the upper atmosphere, reheating as they fell back to the ground. The jolt would have spurred massive earthquakes—some surpassing magnitude 11—tsunamis and landslides. While examining ammonoid fossils in southeastern Missouri, Landman says, he found a shallow water site that was “just immediately covered over by a jumble of stuff,” he says. “I think what we’re seeing is a tsunami,” which might have reached as far from the Yucatan impact site as southern Illinois.
Can you imagine what it looks like to have something 10km wide falling from the sky. I don’t think it would register in the brain. It just wouldn’t compute.
