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What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

theatlantic.com

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Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#41

Post by sseth »

vertline2 wrote: post #14
pfdietz wrote: post #4

The evidence for a massive impact precisely at the K/T boundary is ironclad. Any alternate theory in which the impact was not causal has to explain how this incredible coincidence (the largest impact in the past 100 million years occurring in a layer deposited in just thousands of years, right at the boundary) occurred.

Is it possible for a meteor to cause a chain of volcanoes to blow? like all the pressure under the crust gets rattled around?

Whether that is possible or not, the primary theory for the Deccan Traps is that they were initially formed as India drifted towards Asia and passed over volcanically active area that lies under the present Reunion islands.

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#42

Post by imh »

vertline2 wrote: post #14
pfdietz wrote: post #4

The evidence for a massive impact precisely at the K/T boundary is ironclad. Any alternate theory in which the impact was not causal has to explain how this incredible coincidence (the largest impact in the past 100 million years occurring in a layer deposited in just thousands of years, right at the boundary) occurred.

Is it possible for a meteor to cause a chain of volcanoes to blow? like all the pressure under the crust gets rattled around?

Possible yes. ctrl+f "Some scientists have attempted to find a middle ground between the two camps." in OP for more info and links.

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#43

Post by woodandsteel »

From the article:

"In 1997, hoping to reconcile disagreement over the speed of extinction, scientists organized a blind test in which they distributed fossil samples from the same site to six researchers. The researchers came back exactly split."

Oh dear, that is bad.

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#44

Post by flukus »

ridgeguy wrote: post #29
vertline2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible for a meteor to cause a chain of volcanoes to blow? like all the pressure under the crust gets rattled around?

Maybe. On Mercury, it seems the impact that created the Caloris basin [1] may also have created a seriously busted-up region at its antipode (opposite on the planet from the impact) [2]. This may have happened due to shock waves propagating through Mercury's interior, focused by reflection at the planet's surface onto an area opposite the impact. There are alternate theories. A few years ago, I looked into whether th…

> A few years ago, I looked into whether the Deccan Traps eruptions might have been either triggered or enhanced by similar antipodal seismic wave energy from the Chicxulub impact. Based on Earth's continental positions about 65M years ago, it seemed possible, maybe plausible. There were some papers discussing the possibility, but I don't have the data at hand.

Could it be worked backwards, there a re a number of flood basalts, some as recently as 10mya, is there any evidence of impacts for any others? Or is there some reason the Deccan traps stand out compared to the others?

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#45

Post by tokyodude »

Is the Radiolab account off? That the impact basically fried the surface of the entire planet at > 1000 degrees? Wasn't that also kind of the premise of Seveneves? That a bunch of particulate matter gets into the atmosphere and rains down, on reentry it burns like the space shuttle but with so much of it around the entire planet it basically bakes the entire earth

In the Radiolab episode they claimed the entire planet is covered in the baked layer. That you can dig anywhere on the planet and find it.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/dinopocalypse/

at about the 10 minute mark

or visual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYoqtBEzuiQ#t=15m

Is that still a valid theory?

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#46

Post by bethly »

This is interesting less for the science and more for the conflicts between different camps of "rationalists" about what "science" means. Especially given that the "rockstar physicist shows up with a model, gets angry when everyone doesn't accept their conclusions" dynamic is hardly unique to paleontology.

Re: What Caused the Dinosaur Extinction?

#47

Post by ridgeguy »

flukus wrote: post #44
ridgeguy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. On Mercury, it seems the impact that created the Caloris basin [1] may also have created a seriously busted-up region at its antipode (opposite on the planet from the impact) [2]. This may have happened due to shock waves propagating through Mercury's interior, focused by reflection at the planet's surface onto an area opposite the impact. There are alternate theories. A few years ago, I looked into whether th…

> A few years ago, I looked into whether the Deccan Traps eruptions might have been either triggered or enhanced by similar antipodal seismic wave energy from the Chicxulub impact. Based on Earth's continental positions about 65M years ago, it seemed possible, maybe plausible. There were some papers discussing the possibility, but I don't have the data at hand. Could it be worked backwards, there a re a number of flo…

Good idea. There may be enough impact and vulcanism events with reasonably good dating to search for the former as a cause of the latter.
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