Last Day of the Dinosaurs Page #2

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they're huge.

They're the last of the Sauropods,

the biggest animals

ever to walk the Earth.

and a staggering 40 feet tall,

Alamosaurus weigh

up to 30 ton.

To maintain that bulk,

they need to eat up to a ton

of leaves every day.

A vast herd like this one

strips a landscape of vegetation

in just a few hours.

Because she's a nomad

on a constant search for food,

when it's time for this female to lay

her eggs, she doesn't nest.

She simply lays eggs

in groups of 5 or 6,

to improve the chances

that some will survive.

Under normal conditions,

only one in 3,000 will produce

a mature Alamosaurus.

But the odd stacked

against these eggs,

are about to get astronomical.

Because now,

just 20 minutes away

is racing right at them.

The asteroid fragment's enormous mass

is only part of the threat.

The other part is velocity.

But as it get closer to the planet,

The Earth's gravitational pull

gets stronger

and the asteroid accelerates,

past 40,000-45,000 miles per hour

And mass times acceleration

equals force.

As the asteroid

encounters atmosphere,

friction turn it into a fireball

swooping over the Atlantic

and aimed at Mexico.

And... the Alamosaurus.

It takes just four minutes

to cross the ocean.

It crushes and superheats

the air surrounding it,

transforming gas and debris

into white-hot plasma.

At 35,000 degrees,

it's burning brighter

than a million suns.

It takes just 5 seconds

to flash through the atmosphere.

Impact seems instantaneous.

But hidden within the cataclysm,

are a series of discreet events

invisible to the naked eye

but key to understanding

what follows.

The asteroid's trajectory is shallow.

It flies in at about 30 angle

to the surface.

This means the full brunt

of its destructive power

will be thrown to the north of

the impact point.

Even before the fireball

touches down,

its sheer brightness in the sky

is unimaginable.

the light is so intense

that makes the Alamosaurus' flesh

seem transparent.

And burns flash frames

of their shadows onto the ground.

The scorching light sears

their eyeballs,

They have no way of

seeing what's headed their way,

but they can feel it.

An explosive force

of a hundred million megaton,

more powerful than all the nuclear

weapons ever built.

If the asteroid had

crashed into deep ocean,

some of the force

would have been absorbed.

Instead, it hits the shallow waters

of the gulf of Mexico.

which instantly vaporized.

In fraction of a second,

the entire asteroid

disintegrates into the planet.

Earth and rock also vaporized

in our hurled skyworld

at 100,000 miles an hour

Behind them,

earth's crust

explode from the ground.

the air temperature

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