一项发表在《地球物理研究杂志：生物地球科学》上的新研究揭示了6600万年前Chicxulub小行星撞击地球的致命机制。[1]研究表明，这次撞击产生的巨大尘埃云使大气上层过度加热，烧焦了无法躲避的生物并引发大规模野火，最终导致地球上四分之三的动植物物种灭绝。[1]
这一发现为1980年由Luis Alvarez及其子Walter Alvarez提出的"Alvarez假说"提供了支持。[1]根据研究数据，撞击体大小介于11至81公里之间，其释放的能量是1945年广岛和长崎原子弹释放能量的10亿倍以上。[1]位于墨西哥尤卡坦半岛的Chicxulub陨石坑是这次灾难性撞击的物理证据。[1]
A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences presents evidence that the catastrophic asteroid impact 66 million years ago at Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula triggered a chain of events that incinerated countless organisms and drove three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth to extinction.[1] According to the research, the collision would have generated an immense cloud of dust that superheated the upper atmosphere, charbroiling living organisms that could not escape the intense heat.[1] The impact energy was estimated to exceed one billion times that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.[1]
The impactor itself, measuring between 11 and 81 kilometers in diameter, triggered widespread wildfires following the atmospheric catastrophe.[1] This study reinforces the Alvarez hypothesis, first proposed in 1980 by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter Alvarez, which attributes the mass extinction event to asteroid impact.[1]