K-Pg Extinction

Exploration · Cretaceous

K-Pg Extinction

Starting point · 66 Ma

The Chicxulub impact 66 million years ago spread dust, sulfur and soot into the atmosphere, darkening and cooling Earth and disrupting food webs. Non-avian dinosaurs disappeared; a 2024 isotope study supports a carbonaceous asteroid that formed beyond Jupiter’s orbit. Today, the crater lies buried beneath the northern Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and the nearby sea.