Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Chicxulub crater

Chicxulub crater

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 6, 2022 by Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:29, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 
An animation showing the Chicxulub impact and subsequent crater formation

The Chicxulub Crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Mexican Yucatán Peninsula, with its center located near the town of Chicxulub. The crater is over 180 kilometers (110 mi) in diameter, making it one of the largest confirmed impact structures in the world; the asteroid or comet whose impact formed the crater was at least 10 km (6 mi) in diameter. The crater was named for the town, as well as for the Maya translation of the name: "tail of the devil". It was discovered by geophysicists looking for oil in the late 1970s. The impact structure is from the late Cretaceous Period, roughly 66 million years ago. The impact associated with the crater is implicated in causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, but some critics do not agree that the impact was the sole reason for their extinction. A 2021 study stated that the impactor likely originated in the outer main part of the asteroid belt. (Full article...)