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Scientists To Drill Into 'Ground Zero' of the Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs (sciencemag.org)

Posted by timothy on from the haven't-they-read-any-michael-crichton? dept.

sciencehabit writes: This month, a drilling platform will rise in the Gulf of Mexico, but it won't be aiming for oil. Scientists will try to sink a diamond-tipped bit into the heart of Chicxulub crater — the buried remnant of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs, along with most other life on the planet. They hope that the retrieved rock cores will contain clues to how life came back in the wake of the cataclysm, and whether the crater itself could have been a home for novel microbial life. And by drilling into a circular ridge inside the 180-kilometer-wide crater rim, scientists hope to settle ideas about how such 'peak rings,' hallmarks of the largest impact craters, take shape.

49 comments

  1. Speculation by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 0

    It has not been established that the impact was the cause of the extinction event. Other evidence indicates that life was already on the wain beforehand.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Speculation by Crashmarik · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Consequence of the human desire for simple answers.

      It is annoying here. The "event" was at least three events and took place over an extended time period

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A note: The statistics of fossil preservation indicate that the incidence of fossil dinosaurs will drop in advance of the cataclysm that destroyed them all... but this doesn't indicate that life was already waning.

    3. Re:Speculation by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

      It can be both.

      Many years ago I participated in a paleontological expedition led by the late Dr. Keith Rigby, of Notre Dame. His research was developing a dinosaur species database by stratigraphy in Montana's Hell Creek formation, and his data showed that as you approach the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, you see more dinosaur species that have what appear to be anatomical adaptations for higher temperatures. Above the K-T boundary of course you find no dinosaur remains. This would support a scenario in which the dinosaurs were already under adaptation pressures due to climate change, then were finished off by the asteroid strike.

      A couple of cool things. In the Montana badlands you can actually see the K-T boundary in the stratigraphy; it's a chocolatey brown horizontal band about the width of your hand. I also got to help Dr. Rigby reconstruct a triceratops skull -- which is to say I got to hold his tools while he did the actual work. He pointed out how the frill was richly supplied with blood vessels. You could see the impressions on the surface of the frill, and the frill itself was well-supplied with blood vessels and was almost spongelike in appearance. The suborder Ceratopsia emerged at the end of the Cretaceous; if their frills functioned primarily as heat exchangers that would support Rigby's hypothesis.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:Speculation by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      I'd guess they're doing this sort of research so they can learn more and either help to prove or disprove that particular theory. But unless the archaeological winds have changed while I wasn't paying attention, isn't that still the leading theory?

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    5. Re: Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell us more about how you held his tool...

    6. Re: Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey! Don't go there!

    7. Re: Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      The P-T extinction isn't what the drilling is trying to study. The Chicxulub crater is believed to be responsible for the K-Pg extinction event.

    8. Re:Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, as the dominant species they had privilege at that point, and were brought down by a coalition of minority species, lead by the long oppressed mammals. The mammals convinced the dinosaurs that there needed to be fewer negative (or at least problematic) representations of mammals in contemporary video games.

      The changes that were made to video games to fit in with the mammalists caused the dominance of dinosaurs to disappear. Now they're reduced to a bunch of feathered flying rats, who occasionally take a (white) crap on mammal society, but are otherwise harmless.

    9. Re: Speculation by Crashmarik · · Score: 2

      You're right posted the wrong link there

      http://www.britannica.com/scie...

    10. Re:Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would be a terrible headline writer

    11. Re:Speculation by Fragnet · · Score: 1

      I think the temperature late Cretaceous was falling, not rising. There's substantial evidence of a general species decline (marine at least) for the 10m years preceding the KT event.

      With respect to Rigby's hypothesis, there are so many variables to consider it's very hard to conclude anything from the presence of blood vessels in the frill.

    12. Re:Speculation by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, that's the thing about science is that there's always contradictory evidence. My experience is with more modern environmental data, and one thing it's taught me is to always remember that you're looking at a sample, which may not be representative. This is even more the case when you're looking at data points from 66 million years ago. It's not easy to conclusively say whether temperature were rising, falling, or both at the same time but in different places.

      Science doesn't advance by individuals discovering the Truth; it advances by individuals latching on to tiny facets of the Truth and having a fight about whose facet is the whole Truth. All sides tend to be wrong initially.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    13. Re:Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet the dinos became intelligent, then started burning all the fossile fuels they could find, then
      blasted away themselves in a planet-scale nuclear war.

      Seriously, can anybody disprove that?

    14. Re:Speculation by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The dinosaurs were riding around on a farm cart?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    15. Re:Speculation by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      More specifically, comprehensive collection efforts across samples on the K-T boundary are not inconsistent with dinosaur populations maintaining both abundance and diversity up to the extinction event. There is some evidence that the Chixulub impact occurred well after the start of the Deccan Traps volcanism (200-300 kyr), but dating and fossil collection within the Deccan isn't up to tracking extinctions within their million-yr or so duration.

      While no-one (creation-cretins and Expanding-Earthers excepted) seriously doubts the K-Pg extinctions, the Deccan traps, or the Chixulub impactor, getting the precise relative dating of the three events (at least two of which were likely extended over decades to hundreds of thousands of years), is still a matter for debate and acquisition of evidence.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    16. Re:Speculation by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      For 15 or so years the impactor was the leading theory, but there was always a significant minority of researchers who saw that there were data that didn't necessarily support the impact hypothesis. These days, you'd be hard put to find a geologist who would say anything other than "it appears to have been a complex event".

      Yes, there was an impactor. Around (i.e. both before and after) the same time, there was major volcanism. And how either would have seriously affected some marine orders but not others remains unclear.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    17. Re:Speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (crossing a nebulae s escape gases/debris?)

  2. Just Remember: by cirby · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the drill samples turn out to be a green or black sludge that seems to move by itself, toss it back down the hole and pour in a bunch of concrete.

    Everyone should know that by now.

    1. Re:Just Remember: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      What if it's white?

    2. Re:Just Remember: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if it's white?

      Well then you taste test it.

    3. Re:Just Remember: by bobstreo · · Score: 1

      I think you mean Pink:

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...

      Or Red:

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...

    4. Re:Just Remember: by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

      What if it's white?

      I'm sure Chris Rock will have something to say about it at next year's Oscar ceremony.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    5. Re:Just Remember: by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Shows what you know. They'll find a marker down there, and the zombie apocalypse will be on us next.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    6. Re:Just Remember: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check your useless apostrophes: it's means it is.

  3. But was it an accidental impact ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Drilling the outskirts - where something might have survived the blast - could also be interesting.

    I mean, we are only assuming it was an accident right ?

    1. Re:But was it an accidental impact ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. I'm thinking they'll find thermite.

  4. Aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How do we know it wasn't an alien extremophile virus? Don't drill!

    1. Re:Aliens by sumdumass · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Alien extemophile virus?

      There might be signs of one around but after all this time, it would be a natural part of the evolutionary ecosystem (panspermia) by now. Anyways, the amount of energy involved in this blast site likely means anything hitching a ride down would have been taken out at the time of landing.

      But it would be interesting to see something with raw DNA that somewhat matches strings within existing DNA. It could show a direct link to a panspermia event.

    2. Re: Aliens by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      We don't; that's why that DA needs access to the phone...

  5. Re:I don't think NYC will like this by spiritplumber · · Score: 1

    If they turn into the Koopa Towers, then we definitely have a problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  6. we're sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry....

  7. This could be fun by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    if they discover it's got a depleted uranium core

  8. What if the asteroid was made of methane ice? by __aanbvm4272 · · Score: 1

    It seems there is a LOT more energy underground than can ever be accounted for by rotted biological products. I mean are we really driving around in our cars with dinosaurs "off gasses?" I feel a lot of the energy was slammed underground before it could explode and buried deep for our energy companies to rape us. Thanks Exxon

    1. Re: What if the asteroid was made of methane ice? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      feel a lot of the energy was slammed underground before it could explode

      "Feel" is certainly the right word for that theory. ;)

  9. Dammit I parked there so it wouldn't be disturbed by LesFerg · · Score: 1

    They gonna drill down there and put a parking fine under my wiper?

    --
    If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
  10. Scientists To Drill Into 'Ground Zero' of the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure, they drill into this site, and they'll let the dinosaurs back out.

    Why can't man let well-enough alone?

  11. This worked out well last time for Lanfear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. Wait. It didn't. She died. Twice.

  12. Re:Dammit I parked there so it wouldn't be disturb by Rollgunner · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't brag about that parking job. You burned off a huge chunk of your ship's iridium hull before plowing into the planet...

  13. And so it begins... by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

    Surely more than a few science fiction novels have started like this.

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
  14. Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's about time.