What an asteroid hits may matter as much how hard the impact is guvendemir/Getty Images
Throughout Earth’s history, our planet has been bombarded with a countless number of meteorites, ranging in size from rock fragments that barely leave an imprint to huge kilometre-wide boulders that wiped out vast swathes of life. But do all large impacts lead to mass extinctions? Perhaps not, as geologists have found that the mineral make-up of the rocks that a meteorite hits matters just as much as its size.
Large impacts on Earth’s surface produce ejecta, in which huge amounts of dust are…
