Scientists discover a 5-mile wide undersea crater created as the dinosaurs become extinct

Scientists have found a crater 248 miles off the coast of West Africa that was created right around the same time when dinosaurs disappeared.

It is named Nadir crater and it can throw more light on cataclysmic moment in natural history.

Scientists say that an asteroid from outer sky slammed into the Earth's surface some 66 million years ago, resulting in a massive crater underneath the sea wreaking havoc on the planet.


Uisdean Nicholson, an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, discovered the crater accidentaly when he was reviewing seismic survey data for another project.

The crater is 8 kilometers wide and it was was likely caused by an asteroid more than 400 meters wide hurtling into the Earth's crust. Nicholson says the 8 km wide asteroid is a pretty sizable space rock.

The hurtling of the asteroid must have caused severe consequences at least across the Atlantic Ocran, Nicholson opines.

The impact would have caused a large earthquake and would have wreaked severe damage across the region.

It would have caused an "exceptionally large" tsunami wave up 3,200 feet high (1 kilometer) around the crater, Nicholson explained.

There is however uncertainty -- margin or error of around 1 million years -- about its exact age.

More study is needed, Nicholson said.