66 Million Years Ago: The Asteroid that Wiped Out Dinosaurs Also Created a 2.8-Mile-Tall Tsunami

A massive asteroid impact that occurred 66 million years ago produced a tsunami that was 2.8 miles tall and dwarfed the 1958 Lituya Bay wave.

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A 6-mile-wide asteroid that struck the Yucatán Peninsula with the power of 100 teratons of TNT caused this devastating tsunami.

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Even though the tsunami's original height of 2.8 miles eventually levelled out at 0.93 miles, its impact remained enormous.

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Mass extinctions and a significant change in Earth's climate were brought about by the asteroid impact, which created a dense cloud of dust and debris.

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The tsunami was the strongest in recorded history, with an energy 30,000 times that of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

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Seabed sediments were defaced when this enormous wave surged from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean's periphery.

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The worst of the destruction was avoided in areas like the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean, which were mainly spared from the tsunami's fury.

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The tsunami's impacts were observed 7,500 miles away from the impact location in New Zealand, demonstrating the extraordinary reach of the event.

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According to scientific findings, this was among the strongest and most catastrophic tsunamis in recorded geological history.

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