Asteroid That Caused Mass Extinction on Earth Also Triggered A "Mega-Earthquake" That May Have Lasted For Weeks

The Chicxulub impactor, the 6-mile (10-kilometer) wide asteroid, seems to have done more than wiping out 75% of the Earth's plant and animal species 66 million years ago. It may also have shaken our planet... literally. Research conducted by geologist Hermann Bermúdez seems to suggest this.

In 2014, while on Gorgonilla Island, Colombia, Bermúdez found layers of sediment containing deposits of spherules (small glass beads no larger than a grain of sand) as well as tiny shards known as "tektites" and "microtektites." Said substances are formed when heat and pressure from a massive impact melt and scatter material from the Earth's crust and shoot them into the atmosphere. These materials then fall back on Earth as glass beads.

The spherules, tektites, and exposed rocks on the island's coast reveal how the asteroid's impact affected the seafloor 66 million years ago — it deformed layers of mud and sandstone as much as 33 to 50 feet (about 10 to 15 meters).

Aside from the evidence on the island, Bermúdez also found evidence of liquefaction at the El Papalote exposure in Mexico. Liquefaction occurs when strong shaking causes water-saturated sediments to flow like a liquid. This establishes that some strong shaking did occur.

Now, if it was true that the asteroid triggered a "mega-earthquake," how strong would that have been? It is said that it might have released energy equivalent to 10^23 joules, which is about 50,000 times more than the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004.