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Weekend


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April 25, 2003

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. What was the largest explosion ever on Earth?

    A. Probably when a Mars-sized object hit some 4.6 billion years ago, vaporizing huge amounts of rock that went into orbit and eventually accreted to form the Moon, says Brown University planetary geologist Carolyn Ernst. One of the next biggest was the impact from the 6-10-kilometer-diameter stony asteroid (or larger comet) that dug out the Chicxulub crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, 145-180 kilometers across, energy of 100 million megatons of TNT, believed to be the beginning of the end of the dinosaurs and myriad other species 65 million years ago.


     
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