The KT Boundary: The layer of ash that killed the dinosaurs

Right along the Colorado New Mexico border, there's a rare geological formation where you can actually see ash from the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs.

It's called the K.T. Boundary, and it's a thin gray band of rock that's made up of ash and iridium from the asteroid impact 65 million years ago in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Now formally known as the Cretaceous Paleogene boundary, it used to be called the Cretaceous Tertiary (or K.T.) boundary, and the name stuck. If you ever get to see it, you're lucky -- it's only visible in a few remote locations in the world, even though it theoretically encircled the earth. Most of the visible evidence of the layer has washed away or been buried over the millennia. 
Just outside of Trinidad, Colorado, and near Raton, New Mexico, hikers in the foothills can spot the K.T. Boundary as a thin, chalky line sandwiched between darker more carbon-rich layers. When it was first discovered in Colorado, researchers from the Smithsonian Institute carved out a big chunk and put it on display in Washington for everyone to see.

The discovery of the K.T. Boundary and our understanding of its significance for life on the planet are relatively new, and it represents the ever-changing nature of our understanding of geology and life on this planet. 

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