• grue@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Considering that we’re in the midst of the Anthropocene mass extinction event already, I’d say it would be a certainty. The only question would be how bad it would get. Given how much larger that crater would be than Chicxulub, I’m guessing it would exceed the “Great Dying” (Permian-Triassic extinction event) to take the crown.

    Edit: The Wilkes Land Crater in Antarctica, which may be associated with the Great Dying, was “only” a little over 2.5 times larger in diameter than Chicxulub and thus still way smaller than the crater depicted. That said, I guess a nuclear crater wouldn’t be associated with a flood basalt “exit wound” at the antipode the way an impact crater might be, so maybe it wouldn’t be comparable.