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Question
My questions concern the K-T impact event that is currently theorized to have lead to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Would the impact have been powerful enough to blast debris into space and could any of it have settled on the moon? Where on the lunar surface would one expect to find this debris? Would it be macroscopically identifiable as terrestrial in origin or would sophisticated lab analysis be required?
The KT impact of 65 million years ago in what is now the Yucatan in Mexico is estimated at an energy of 100 million megatons of TNT. It formed a crater about 200 km in diameter and as much as 40 km deep -- enough to pierce the crust and reach the upper mantle. While almost all of this excavated material fell back to Earth (creating a global firestorm), some reached escape velocity and some small fraction of that debris would have ended up on the Moon. This debris would likely be scattered all over the Earth-facing side of the Moon. However, it would be extremely difficult to identify without chemical and isotopic analyses. It is not clear to me what the value of this material would be, since we already have a global layer of billions of tons of the KT ejecta on Earth to study in place.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
September 5, 2008
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