The asteroid that struck Yucatan and created the Chicxulub crater may have produced an intense heat pulse in the immediate aftermath, according to a new study. See https://phys.org/news/2026-07-chicxulub-lingering-falling-debris-global.html … A study in the Journal of Geophysical Research says that the impact may have created a thick global blanket of dust in the upper atmosphere, around the whole globe. It trapped and redirected heat down to the surface to ignite worldwide wildfires, burning even those animals with the thickest of skins, leaving them burnt as a crisp. Sounds almost like the kind of scenario visualised by the Younger Dryas team much more recently. It adds, killing everything within the first hour or two. Now, that sounds like a real catastrophic scenario. Expect some serious resistance over the next couple of months.
Impact simulations show that an asteroid the size of the object that struck the Yucatan result in high temperatures, pressure waves, and the release of energy capable of vapourising rock, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust and rock vapour, lifting it high into the atmosphere. Rock vapour condensed it into tiny rock droplets known as spherules. Previous studies suggested these spherules restricted and prevented too much heat forming and only enough to sizzle thin skinned animals but not enough for plants to suddenly burst into flames. This finding, or claim, had moved researchers away from the immediate effects of the impact. Aided and abetted, no doubt by the gradualist view of the geological past.
However, in 2023, new evidence was presented from layers of rock recording the sediments laid down by the impact and this included a distinct problem. Brendan Johnson, described as a planetary scientist, has reinvigorated the debate with the new 2026 study, is certain to cause apoplexy in some quarters. He went on to combine simulations of the impact event with the layer of fine dust laid down in the aftermath of the impact. This geological observation, a dust layer of some distinction, allowed him to calculate the amount of dust in the atmosphere at the time, and how that would have boosted earth’s retention and release of heat energy. Clever stuff. It turns out it was a lot hotter than earlier findings – and all without combining an electromagnetic pulse. The obvious outcome of these new findings is that the impact itself caused the devastation to terrestrial life forms as seen in the geological record. Johnson has therefore come out with a big finding that will cause some concern to traditional geologists who have mainly ignored the elephant in the room since Alveraz came out with the asteroid strike idea. If the dust layer was laid down quickly it is more likely that other layers of sediments were also laid down quickly, somewhat akin to the thick layers of sediments that were made with a day or so of the Mount St Helens volcano. It is not unreasonable to see a connection between the Deccan Traps on the opposite side of the world to Yucatan and the asteroid. They are currently dated a lot way amiss.