Dinosaur extinction and Chicxulub asteroid

[guy]

There is a theory that a giant asteroid impact in the Yucatán changed the planet enough to cause the dinosaurs’ extinction. Studies have recently further pinpointed the date of the impact.

The Chicxulub asteroid collision is the leading theory for the dinosaurs’ extinction, replacing some earlier theories:

 

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“A groundbreaking study led by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and an international team of scientists conclusively confirms the time year of the catastrophic Chicxulub asteroid, responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs and 75 percent of life on Earth 66 million years ago. Springtime, the season of new beginnings, ended the 165-million-year reign of dinosaurs and changed the course of evolution on Earth.“

“The impact site, known as the Chicxulub crater, is centred on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The asteroid is thought to have been between 10 and 15 kilometres wide, but the velocity of its collision caused the creation of a much larger crater, 150 kilometres in diameter - the second-largest crater on the planet.“

”’'The asteroid hit at high velocity and effectively vaporised. It made a huge crater, so in the immediate area there was total devastation. A huge blast wave and heatwave went out and it threw vast amounts of material up into the atmosphere.

'It sent soot travelling all around the world. It didn't completely block out the Sun, but it reduced the amount of light that reached the Earth's surface. So it had an impact on plant growth.'”

”Like dominos, this trailed up the food chain, causing the ecosystem to collapse. The reduction in plant life had a huge impact on herbivores' ability to survive, which in turn meant that carnivores would also have suffered from having less food available.”    

 

 

 

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-chicxulub-asteroid-impact.amp

 

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html

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”There is research to suggest that if the impact had occurred elsewhere on the planet, the fate of life on Earth could have been very different. If it had fallen just minutes later the asteroid would have landed in deeper water, causing less rock to vaporise and rise to block out the Sun's light and warmth. This would have lowered the chances of a mass extinction.

But if the dinosaurs' reign hadn't been abruptly ended by an asteroid, Paul thinks that we might have seen some (other than birds) around today.”

 

 

                  

 

 

 

Edited January 28 by guy

[Novosedoff]

The interesting thing is that the event of asteroid collision 66 mln years ago is often related to the anomaly of iridium contained within the earth layer of that age. This seems to be mistakenly accepted by everyone as evidence to support the claim of collision.

However the attached page from a Russian book of 2017 by Marov titled From the Solar system deeper towards the Universe  seems to give a slightly different perspective. On the horizontal x-axis of the above plot it shows the timeline from today-0 to 540 mln years ago. On the y-axis it shows the percentage of the extinct marine species. The cross and asterisk signs denote the collision/shock events of different kind, while 0 denotes the iridium anomalies. As can be seen, none of the iridium anomalies is actually related to the time point of 66 mln years ago.

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Novosedoff