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Volcanoes May Have Caused Mass Extinctions?

Hugh Pickens writes "According to recent research, huge amounts of sulphur dioxide released by volcanic eruptions may have had more to do with wiping out dinosaurs than the meteorite strike at Chicxulub on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Marine sediments drilled from the Chicxulub crater have revealed that that the mass extinctions occurred 300,000 years after Chicxulub hit Earth. The Deccan volcanism was a long cumulative process that released vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. '"On land it must have been 7-8 degrees warmer," says Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller. "The Chicxulub impact alone could not have caused the mass extinction, because this impact predates the mass extinction."' Keller also postulates a second larger and still unidentified meteor strike after Chicxulub, that left the famous extraterrestrial layer of iridium found in rocks worldwide and pushed earth's ecosystem over the brink. But where's the crater? "I wish I knew," says Keller."

3 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Well it looks as if by Deleriux · · Score: 0, Troll

    Tom Cruise and John Travolta were right about Xenu all along!

  2. Mother Nature causes Global Warming? by Adam8g · · Score: 0, Troll
    but but but I heard that very smart man Mr. Gore say . . .

    And what about Mt. Pinatubo, its eruption in 1991injected 20- million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere .... Is that more than all the sulfur dioxide man puts into the atmosphere? Hummmm

    But but but I heard that very smart man Mr. Gore say . . .

    You mean the earth has undergone repeated cycles of extreme warming and cooling WITHOUT man?

    But but but I heard that very smart man Mr. Gore say . . .

  3. Re:Ridiculous... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 0, Troll

    It must be convenient to live in a world where you get to completely describe the entire worldview of your opponents in a single run-on sentence.