Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

101 Ways To Kill The Dinosaurs

Posted by timothy on from the russian-roulette-writ-large dept.

blank writes "Everyone knows there are many impact craters on Earth; around 170 in fact. This article from the Seattle PI points out that more than one of those impacts could have caused the extinction of the Dinosaurs. In Ukraine, scientists found that a well-known crater had been inaccurately dated - the correct date puts the impact sometime around when the Dinosaurs disappeared..."

4 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. For pete's sake. by Neck_of_the_Woods · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You would think they would just realize the it might have been more than one. Look at last 1/2 dozen that smaked into Jupiter.

    Nothing like a one two punch to really put a cloud in the sky and cool things down.

    --
    Neck_of_the_Woods
    #/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
  2. Agreed. by Captain_Stupendous · · Score: 3, Insightful
    When you think about it, it makes a hell of a lot more sense that an earth-covering cloud of crap would come from a series of impacts, rather than just a single huge one.

    1) Asteroids, meteorites and comets tend (okay, massive generalisation here, but whatever) to travel in packs (a la Leonides and Perseides).

    2) I don't kow about you, but I have trouble believing that a single impact could wipe out "all" life without destroying the planet, ripping off the atmosphere, etc...

    --


    I am alone, yet I also surf the universal backwash of undifferentiated Being, which is LOVE.
    1. Re:Agreed. by AlXtreme · · Score: 2, Insightful
      My thoughts exactly, problem is that this must be one huge (numbers and size) pack to devastate the earth, as many would miss their target.

      Imho there must have been a major collision relativly close to earth that caused for hurling massive amounts of relativly small asteroids at earth. The chance that a random "pack" of asteroids would all hit earth without direct cause seems to me to be very slim...

      --
      This sig is intentionally left blank
  3. Re:Catastrophism vs. Gradualism by fluffy666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Events at the KT boundary:

    1: Long term climate change, over 10 million years or so; a fairly gradual cooling with changes in sea level. Makes the dinosaurs less energy efficient.

    2: Medium term, repeated massive volcanic events in the Deccan Traps. These would cause repeated climatic fluctuations; again this is bad for the big animals.

    3: Short term, one or more asteroid collisions causing a very severe short term climatic shock.

    It's worth pointing out that if you have any one of these in isolation - which has happened many times - you do NOT get an extinction on the KT scale. Personally I go for the 'It was everything at once what diddit' theory.