Possible Environmental Effects
If our planet were to experience another incident similar to the K/T event there would be many environmental effects. Within the first minutes of impact, a large portion of the Earth’s surface would be covered in the fireball’s irradiance. The impact would cause strong winds and tidal waves in the areas close to the impact. These events would affects the environment for months, years, or even decades. Over the next few months after the impact the entire atmosphere would be covered in a dark and cold veil of dust. For decades this causes severe damage to the atmosphere, such as the depletion of the ozone layer and a high increase of greenhouse gases, leaving a large amount of toxins in the air. These environmental changes also harmed all vegetation on the planet by halting photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is vital to a healthy atmosphere, but would do no good without the sun. Over this period of time the planet would have cooled down significantly, which is another main reason for the extinction of many animal species.
