The most compelling evidence for this theory is the Chicxulub crater near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, an impact crater that was discovered by geologists in 1992. This almost 180-mile-(110-kilometer-) wide crater is thought to be the result of a 6-mile-(10-kilometer-) diameter asteroid. The crater was created approximately 64.98 million years ago, which would be the right time frame for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The crater is buried, and was actually found in the 1960s during a subsurface survey taken by an oil company. It took years before a geologist looking at the data noticed the circularity of the feature and brought the impact crater to the attention of the scientific community.