According to a study published in the journal AGU Advances, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago also triggered a global tsunami with waves as high as 1 mile (1,609 meters) that washed away from the impact site on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Thousands of miles of seabed. Researchers use modelling to better understand tsunamis and their reach. The “megaquake” from the impact is estimated to have released an energy of 10^23 joules, about 50,000 times more energy than the magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, in December 2004. The initial energy of the tsunami was 30,000 times greater than that of the Indonesian tsunami. The Indonesian tsunami killed more than 230,000 people and was one of the largest tsunamis in modern records. According to the study, the tsunami was powerful enough to generate waves more than 1,609 meters high, washing the ocean floor millions of kilometers away from the asteroid’s impact. It effectively “erased” the sedimentary record of events in the region before and during the tsunami.
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