About 65 million years ago the asteroid (according to the new theory, it was the comet) with a diameter about 10 kilometers fell to the ground. Force of blow has constituted 100 тератонн in a trotyl equivalent, and this capacity was enough to create a tsunami up to 100 meters high, which together with a high-temperature shock wave literally safely all on the way. What was farther? What became with dinosaurs and other ancient life forms? How Earth managed to recover after similar shock? These questions haunt researchers of the whole world for many years. And here, at last, scientific minds have decided to glance in the past, having drilled a well on the place of fall of an asteroid.
The crater of Chiksulub ("The demon of pincers" in the Maya language) is located on the peninsula Yucatan in Mexico. Its diameter constitutes about 180 kilometers, and depth – to 20 kilometers. Already on April 1, 2016 scientists will begin to drill a well in this historical place. Their purpose is search of DNA samples, various fossils, traces of changes in stone breeds at a different depth and much, many other. Researchers believe that this "jackpot" waits for them at a depth from 800 to 1500 meters as exactly there, according to their theory, there are so-called rings of a raising and the central hill over a blow point.
Scientists hope to receive a set of answers to the questions concerning them. For example, whether has brought an asteroid to Earth microorganisms which have helped to return life to the region of catastrophic crash subsequently or whether the theory that some time the survived organisms ate iron and sulfur instead of elements, habitual for them, is right. The drilling platform built in a crater will work within two months. Researchers will have no right to a mistake during drilling as if something goes not so, nobody will provide the second chance to them. But if their project is crowned with success, we can shed light on the mysterious past of our planet.