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 Giant
Impact
Well,
here we are, floating in space far above the Earth. The Earth is
so beautiful on this sunny cretaceous morning! Sunlight glints off
the oceans, a warm wind stirs the leaves and flowers of the vast
forests and meadows. Multitudes of dinosaurs and their relatives
swim in the seas, fly in the air, and walk upon the lands. How peaceful
it is!
Yeeeeow!
What just whizzed by? It is a giant asteroid, ten miles across,
and it's headed right for Earth! A brilliant flash envelopes the
intruder as it enters the atmospher--will it burn up in the sky
like a meteor? NO! It strikes the shallow sea in a blinding fireball!
A vast cone of red-hot rock and steam blasts upward above the atmosphere
only to fall back and flare again upon re-entry. Vast forest fires
are ignited all over the world by the intense heat! Mile-high waves
from the impact site roar across the shorelines of North and South
America, sweeping everything away! Huge clouds of dust quickly spread
from the impact site to cover the whole Earth!
Finally the
surface of Earth is hidden from us by the clouds of dust and steam.
As the global fires die out below the clouds, the whole surface
of Earth grows dark and cold. It is all over in an hour, but it
will be six months before sunlight reaches the ground again! How
can anything survive?
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