Something for the weekend: The sudden death of the dinosaurs

At beautiful Stevns Klint, south of Copenhagen, visitors can get close to one of the world’s greatest catastrophes

For millions of years it was a mystery. But then an American geologist visited Stevns Klint and discovered things that helped scientists to understand one of the world’s greatest catastrophes.

Nearby Rødvig Kro og Badehotel located in Stevns, about an hour south of Copenhagen, visitors can experience Stevns Klint, an inclusion on a prestigious UNESCO list since 2014.

Stevns Klint is one of just seven Danish attractions on UNESCO’s international list of cultural monuments and natural sites in the world worthy of preservation. 

Here you can take a walk or ride a bike while getting a feeling of being on the edge of the world.

Violent explosions
The museum ‘Stevns Klint Experience’ is among the best places in the world to experience the impact of the asteroid – around 10 to 17 km in diameter – that hit Mexico 66 million years ago. 

The asteroid, which for millions of years spun at a safe distance from our planet, struck with such force that it brought with it mass death and destruction.

The impact caused one of the most violent explosions ever to occur on Earth, followed by firestorms, earthquakes, tsunamis and months of darkness. Half of all species – including the dinosaurs – died.

Life on Earth would never be the same again.