The impact would have penetrated the Earth's crust, scattering dust debris into the atmosphere, and causing huge fires (generated by hot debris thrown from the crater tsunamis, severe storms with high winds and highly acid rain, seismic activity, and perhaps even volcanic activity. The impact could have caused chemical changes in the Earth's atmosphere, increasing concentrations of sulfuric acid and fluoride compounds. The heat from the impact's blast wave would have incinerated all the life forms in its path. The dust and debris thrust into the atmosphere would have blocked most of the sunlight for months, and lowered the temperature globally.

Those organisms that could not adapt to the temperature and light changes would die out. Since plants' energy is derived from the sun, they would likely be the first to be affected by changes in climate. As plants died out, the Earth's oxygen levels may well have dramatically decreased, both on land and in the oceans, suffocating those organisms which were unable to cope with the lower oxygen levels. Major changes in the food chain would result from all of these environmental upheavals. The herbivores (plant eaters) who ate those plants would starve soon after the plants died. Then, at the top of the food chain, the carnivores (meat eaters), having lost their prey, would have to eat each other, and eventually die out.

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