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Chicxulub Crater

Chicxulub Crater (IPA: /tSikSu'lub/) (cheek-shoe-LUBE) is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula, with its center located approximately underneath the town of Chicxulub, Yucatán, Mexico. Investigations suggest that this impact structure is dated from the late Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. The meteorite's estimated size was about 10 km (6 mi) in diameter, releasing an estimated 500 zetajoules (5.0×10^23 joules) of energy, approximately 100,000 gigatons of TNT^, on impact. By contrast, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba or Emperor Bomb, had a yield of only one-twentieth of a gigaton.

Nearest places of interest:

Pinar del Río
Viñales Valley
Tampico
Gretna
Chichen Itza
El Castillo
Mérida
Campeche

Popular places:

Mexico City
Mexico
Ciudad Juárez
Puebla
Mérida
Monterrey
Acapulco
Chichen Itza
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