January 23, 2025
“Life will find a way”
- Actor Jeff Goldblum from the original Jurassic Park film
We took a taxi north of the city about 25 miles to Progresso Beach. As beaches go, it left a lot to be desired. The area less than 1 block from the beach was very blighted. Also, less than a year ago a hurricane struck head on here and damage is still evident. The water is grey, cold and uninviting.
Still, oddly enough, it is a curse ship stop and two of the giant ships were in port today. Tourist oriented shops were full and at one restaurant there was a group of cruisers having lunch. At the head of the table was a older fellow dressed from head to toe as a pirate. This appeared to be his choice. He did not appear to be an entertainer.
I have met ‘bears’ on cruises before, but never a pirate.
However, despite the somewhat gloomy facade and the persistent cold breeze, the beach is not what we came to see.
It was right here that the world ended 66 million years ago.
This model of a dinosaur was at ground zero. The model was based on a fossil in this position who died at the impact. He appeared, according to scientists to be looking up and offering a paleontological scream of “Oh F*ck!” before he died.
Over 4 1/2 billion years ago, what is now our sun exploded into existence. The resulting maelstrom sent gases swirling into space. These gases, over hundreds of million of years, would coalesce and form the planets and the left over bits would become the millions of asteroids that orbit around with us.
Today, as we spin through the void of our solar system, we are always at risk of running into one of these asteroids like a galactic game of bumper cars. The only reason it doesn’t happen very often, like say meteors, is the distances in space are so vast and we are moving so quickly that the odds are very low.
But it has happened before. Right here in Yucatan.
Around 60-70 million years ago, from somewhere beyond the orbit of Jupiter a class C asteroid (the most common type) strayed from its path and headed towards Earth. It was the Cretaceous period in our history and dinosaurs still were the dominant species on the planet.
It was 9 miles wide, larger than Mt Everest is tall, and was hurtling at an astonishing 12 miles per second. It stuck the area of Yucatan with the force of a billion atomic bombs completely vaporizing the ground at the impact site. The power of the blast created a fire tsunami that blasted out in a radius of over 1000 miles. The impact also generated massive ocean tsunamis that raced around the world.
But that was not the worst part.
The explosion generated a plume of debris so vast and tall that it extended beyond the outer atmosphere. It hit so hard that it literally sent a wave of destruction around the globe setting the world on fire. The soot covered the earth and backed out the sun for around two hundred years. Think of Mordor, but on a much bigger scale. What followed was an ecological collapse and a mass extinction event. With the sun blocked, plants died. The dinosaurs that ate plants followed soon after. Predators fell off afterwards leading to 75% of all life on earth to perish.
So long T Rex.
It took almost 200 years to complete this event. The sun eventually returned. The chalkboard had been cleaned. It was time to start again.
Today, you cannot see the actual impact crater today. The impact pulverized the land. But it is through cenotes that you can see the physical evidence. The asteroid was named Chicxulub after the nearby Mayan village where the crater was discovered.
All of this incredible drama happened right here on this lonely cold beach.
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