Task: Question Answering
Input (English): Passage: The impact would have caused a megatsunami over 100 metres (330 ft) tall that would have reached all the way to what are now Texas and Florida. The height of the tsunami was limited by the relatively shallow sea in the area of the impact; in deep ocean it would have been 4.6 kilometres (2.9 mi) tall. A cloud of super-heated dust, ash and steam would have spread from the crater as the impactor burrowed underground in less than a second. Excavated material along with pieces of the impactor, ejected out of the atmosphere by the blast, would have been heated to incandescence upon re-entry, broiling the Earth's surface and possibly igniting wildfires; meanwhile, colossal shock waves would have triggered global earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Fossil evidence for an instantaneous die-off of diverse animals was found in a soil layer only 10 centimetres (3.9 in) thick in New Jersey some 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) away from the impact site, indicating that death and burial under debris occurred suddenly and quickly over wide distances on land.The emission of dust and particles could have covered the entire surface of the Earth for several years, possibly a decade, creating a harsh environment for living things. The shock production of carbon dioxide caused by the destruction of carbonate rocks would have led to a sudden greenhouse effect. Over a decade or longer, sunlight would have been blocked from reaching the surface of the Earth by the dust particles in the atmosphere, cooling the surface dramatically. Photosynthesis by plants would also have been interrupted, affecting the entire food chain. A model of the event developed by Lomax et al. (2001) suggests that net primary productivity (NPP) rates may have increased to higher than pre-impact levels over the long term because of the high carbon dioxide concentrations.In February 2008, a team of researchers led by Sean Gulick at the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences used seismic images of the crater to determine that the impactor landed in deeper water than was previously assumed. They argued that this would have resulted in increased sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere. According to the press release, that "could have made the impact deadlier in two ways: by altering climate (sulfate aerosols in the upper atmosphere can have a cooling effect) and by generating acid rain (water vapor can help to flush the lower atmosphere of sulfate aerosols, causing acid rain)." This was borne out by the results of a drilling project in 2016 which found that sulfate-containing rocks found in the area were not found in the peak ring (the rocks found were from deep within the earth's crust instead), the interpretation being that they had been vaporized by the impact and dispersed into the atmosphere. 
Question: What in the atmosphere would have blocked sunlight from reaching the surface of the Earth?
Output (English): dust particles.