On #Chesapeake#Asteroid#Day 35 million years ago, if you were standing in what is now D.C., you may have seen a blinding flash of light arcing across the sky from the northwest.
At a speed of 11 miles per second, the two- to five-mile-wide asteroid struck 200 miles away at Cape Charles, which was underwater back then.
The asteroid burst through 600 to 1,500 feet of ocean before penetrating five miles into the seafloor.
It was as if Earth got shot with a bullet.
Fractures were driven as deep as seven miles.
Judging by other similar impacts, rock in the crater could have superheated to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than lava.
To be fair, the asteroid didn’t fare any better than the earth.
It was instantly vaporized into gas by the heat and energy of the impact.
As water and sediment rushed back into the crater, the edge expanded beyond the 17-mile-wide hole carved by the asteroid, widening the crater to 25 miles. https://boundarystones.weta.org/2024/01/05/dmvs-worst-natural-disaster-chesapeake-bay-asteroid
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