One of the changes was that this meteorite struck the earth, threw a lot of debris into the atmosphere, made it much colder for a long period of time . . . It was the most catastrophic event that the earth has experienced at least within the last 65 million years. The collision also caused an earthquake that would today register about 13 on the Richtor scale, King added. The debris crater being studied by King and his colleagues through the Planetary Society of Pasadena, Calif., is located in Belize, Central America. The crater is about 200 miles from the actual site of the meteorite's impact, King said.
Scientists estimate that the meteorite was about six miles in diameter.
At impact, it created a crater some 115 miles in diameter. The Planetary Society team is the first to observe and collect samples of the actual ejecta debris, according to King. The group, he added, found automobile-sized boulders which had been hurled some 200 miles by the meteorite's impact. Smaller stones, he said, show evidence of thermal alteration, impact shock and deep scratching and grooving. The research group plans further studies in Belize and in Italy, where ash and dust layers from the impact's vapor cloud have been discovered, King added.