The Chicxulub volcanic crater is famous for two main reasons : it was form by the asteroid that led to the extinguishing of the dinosaur and it is the well - preserved illustration of a peak - band washbowl crater . Unfortunately , it is buried under 1 klick ( 0.6 Roman mile ) of sediment .
But an international mathematical group of scientists has come up with an ingenious way to learn more about its formation . They searched the Moon for a like crater and base the Schrödinger impact basin , a big crater place near the South Pole on the far side of our satellite .
“ The features seen in the Schrödinger basin also paint an awful picture of Earth ’s Chicxulub volcanic crater , ” said lead generator David Kring , from the Lunar and Planetary Institute , in astatement .
“ Observations of the lunar basin indicate the rock in the Chicxulub catchment basin ’s peak ringing flow , in part , because it was dissected into a with child number of rocky blocks with repress cohesion and possibly cancel by kilometre - scale fault motions . ”
In a newspaper , write inNature Communication , the team hash out where the 2.5 - kilometer - high ( 1.5 miles ) summit rings surrounding the lunar crater come from . Observations and computer model point that the impingement uplifted rocks from deepness of down to 30 kilometre ( 18 mi ) below the lunar crust .
The impact would have lifted debris 20 kilometers ( 12 air mile ) from the surface before collapsing , within an hour , forming the edge of the crater , which is 320 kilometers ( 200 miles ) across . The same would have happened on Earth as well , although more quickly due to our planet have gravid somberness .
“ The Chicxulub peak ring , now buried , would have been composed of rocks from recondite in the Earth ’s crust and , when emplaced , would have produced a jagged mint range that rise from the volcanic crater floor , ” retain Kring .
“ If one wants to think how the Chicxulub crater looked shortly after impact , one only ask to peer at the Schrödinger basin on the Moon . ”
The research shows how we can apply celestial bodies to investigate Earth ’s geology . And more probe of the Schrödinger basin will bring more apprehension of the Cretaceous extinction .
