About 66 million years ago, the giant Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth, leaving an impact crater about 200 kilometers wide on the Yucatan Peninsula.. Subsequent events, as we know, destroyed 75% of species on Earth, including dinosaurs. But what actually became the catalyst for the mass extinction Scientists believe they have discovered something that was previously overlooked, writes IFLScience.

A massive release of sulfur was largely responsible for the sudden cooling of the planet that followed the accidental collision with an asteroid. But did events really develop as we previously thought In a new study, scientists tested the long-held belief that the sulfur eruption, among other things, caused a severe, prolonged " Researchers now believe that earlier studies likely overestimated the amount of sulfur that was actually released.

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When the huge asteroid crashed into Earth, it sent a cloud of dust, soot and other substances into the atmosphere, creating what scientists call an " Essentially, at this point the planet plunges into extreme cold and darkness: plants cannot photosynthesize and animals cannot develop. In the case of the Chicxulub asteroid, its impact led to a complete rearrangement of the order of animals.

In this destructive dust cloud, scientists previously identified a particularly " However, the exact amount of sulfur released is still a matter of debate, with scientists' estimates varying widely.. The main questions that still have no answers are: were there many stones filled with sulfur at the impact site?; at what speed and at what angle did the asteroid fall; what could this mean for the subsequent spread of sulfur?.

In a new study, scientists used cores extracted from impact rocks at the Chicxulub site in Mexico.. The study's authors note that their work was the first in history to empirically calculate how much sulfur was actually released during an asteroid impact..

According to study co-author, chemist Katerina Rodyushkina, she and her colleagues focused not on the impact event itself, but on its consequences. Initially, they analyzed the sulfur trace of rocks in the area of \u200b\u200bthe craters, which were the source of sulfate aerosols released into the atmosphere.

These aerosols spread throughout the world and were eventually released from the atmosphere back to the planet's surface within months, and possibly years, of the impact. Sulfur has fallen around the K-Pg boundary layer in sediment profiles around the world. In the study, scientists used the corresponding change in sulfur isotopic composition to distinguish that associated with the impact from natural sources.. As a result, the total amount of sulfur released was calculated using a mass balance.

As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that previous estimates were overestimated, with some of them being 5 times higher than the new results..

The team believes that a total of 67 ± 39 billion tons of sulfur were released, suggesting that it was followed by a milder winter of the impact than previously thought.

In simple terms, the temperature of the planet would still drop, but probably not as sharply, and the climate would return to near normal much sooner than expected. The authors of the study also believe that their discovery may explain why, despite all the drama, a quarter of life on Earth still managed to survive.

Focus previously wrote that the discovery of new fossils is rewriting the global history of dinosaurs.