Dinosaur Extinction: The Meteor Theory
The demise of the dinosaurs has been a fascinating topic with many different theories proposed. For many years the main belief was that it was probably volcanic activity that brought about the main extinction:
massive volcanic eruptions, which may have released climate-changing gases in the Spain-sized region known as the Deccan Traps, played a significant
role.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/16/world/dinosaur-extinction-volcanoes-asteroid-scn/index.html
The Deccan Traps is a large igneous province of west-central India (17–24°N, 73–74°E). It is one of the largest volcanic features on Earth, taking the form of a large shield volcano.
Because of its magnitude, scientists have speculated that the gases released during the formation of the Deccan Traps played a major role in the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary or K–T extinction). It has been theorized that sudden cooling due to sulfurous volcanic gases released by the formation of the traps and toxic gas emissions may have contributed significantly to the K–Pg mass extinction.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230318003137/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Traps
![Luis, left, and his son Walter Alvarez, right, at the K-T [K-Pg] Boundary in Gubbio, Italy, 1981.](/images/meteor/lwa-with-walt-60.jpg "Luis, left, and his son Walter Alvarez, right, at the K-T [K-Pg] Boundary in Gubbio, Italy, 1981.")
Luis, left, and his son Walter Alvarez, right, at the K-T [K-Pg] Boundary in Gubbio, Italy, 1981.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarez_hypothesis
In the late nineteen seventies two scientists, Luis and Walter Alvarez were investigating some rocks in the K-Pg boundary layers and noticed high levels of iridium, an element that was very common in meteors and not that common on Earth. After checking similar layers in other locations and finding similar results they drew the conclusion that it may have been possible that a large meteor had slammed into the Earth at the K-Pg point or roughly 66 million years ago. The resulting destruction may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was a very novel theory and though destruction from space had been proposed prior to this, the Alvarez's were probably among the first to suggest some possible evidence from the rock record.
In 1980, a team of researchers led by Nobel prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez, his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, and chemists Frank Asaro and Helen Vaughn Michel discovered that sedimentary layers found all over the world at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary, formerly called Cretaceous–Tertiary or K–T boundary) contain a concentration of iridium hundreds of times greater than normal. Iridium is extremely rare in the Earth's crust because it is very dense and has the affinity for iron that characterizes the siderophile elements (see Goldschmidt classification), and therefore most of it sank into the Earth's core while the earth was still molten. The Alvarez team suggested that an asteroid struck the earth at the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary.
http://web.archive.org/web/20201108005220/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarez_hypothesis
When first proposed by the Alvarez's it was not immediately accepted by the majority of Evolutionists and even met some derision. But over the intervening years Evolutionists have warmed to the hypothesis and currently the vast majority have accepted it, swinging away from volcanism:
"A lot of people have speculated that volcanoes mattered to K-Pg, and we're saying, 'no, they didn't," said Pincelli Hull, an assistant professor of
geology and geophysics at Yale and lead author of the study, which published Thursday in Science.
"What our study does is take 40 years of research and adds a bunch of new research. It combines this in the most quantitative tests you can do and it
really doesn't look like it (was the volcanoes)."
They found that at least 50% or more of the major outgassing from the Deccan Traps occurred well before the asteroid impact, and only the impact
coincided with the mass extinction event.
"Volcanic activity in the late Cretaceous [period] caused a gradual global warming event of about two degrees, but not mass extinction," said Henehan
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/16/world/dinosaur-extinction-volcanoes-asteroid-scn/index.html
In the March 5, 2010 edition of the journal Science, an international panel of 41 experts in geology, paleontology and other related fields, after an exhaustive review of the data, declared an end to a 30 year controversy over what triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs – an asteroid or volcanoes. The panel ruled in favor of the asteroid, a theory first put forth in 1980 by one of Berkeley Lab’s greatest scientists, the late Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, and his son Walter, a geologist with UC Berkeley.
“We conclude that the Chicxulub impact was the ultimate cause for the mass extinctions of the dinosaurs,” Schulte told the media.
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/03/09/alvarez-theory-on-dinosaur/
Since the impact hypothesis for the demise of the dinosaurs was first proposed more than 30 years ago, many scientists have come to believe the meteor caused the mass extinction and wiped out the dinosaurs
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110712211016.htm
Indeed, an only moderate climate change (~2°C warming) during the last 400 thousand years of the Cretaceous has been interpreted to result from Deccan flood basalt volcanism ...
The correlation between impact-derived ejecta and paleontologically defined extinctions at multiple locations around the globe leads us to conclude that the Chicxulub impact triggered the mass extinction that marks the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras ~65.5 million years ago.
Schulte, P.; et al. (5 March 2010). "The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary".
Science. 327 (5970): 1214–1218.
http://doc.rero.ch/record/210367/files/PAL_E4389.pdf
And further study using computer simulations showed that the meteor was quite capable of causing enough destruction to take the dinosaurs to extinction:
Within two minutes of slamming into Earth, the asteroid, which was at least six miles wide, had gouged a crater about eighteen miles deep and lofted
twenty-five trillion metric tons of debris into the atmosphere. Picture the splash of a pebble falling into pond water, but on a planetary scale. When
Earth's crust rebounded, a peak higher than Mt. Everest briefly rose up. The energy released was more than that of a billion Hiroshima bombs, ...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died
A comet or an asteroid—we aren't sure which—collided with the Earth, hitting what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. It was about six miles (ten
kilometers) wide, or about the size of Mount Everest. It was probably moving at a speed of around 67,000 miles per hour (108,000 kilometers per hour),
more than a hundred times faster than a jet airliner. When it slammed into our planet, it hit with the force of over 100 trillion tons of TNT, somewhere
in the vicinity of a billion nuclear bombs' worth of energy. It plowed some twenty-five miles (forty kilometers) through the crust and into the mantle,
leaving a crater that was over 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide. p.315.
The RISE and FALL of the DINOSAURS
A New History of Their Lost World, STEVE BRUSATTE. 2018.
Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.
Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.
Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.
This comet is 10 kilometres in diameter, taller than Mt Everest or larger than the Martian moon Deimos. This harbinger of destruction is travelling at a
speed of more than 100000 kilometres per hour and its energy of motion has the destructive force of 100 million hydrogen bombs. p.163.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.
The rock was an asteroid, essentially a small planet or a large meteorite. It measured up to 7 kilometres (4 miles) across, the size of Manhattan, and as
it drove into the Earth's crust, just off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula in modern Mexico, it blasted out a deep hole and caused shattering of the
crust to an even greater depth, and over a much wider radius, than the crater itself (see pl. xix).
The impact had a kinetic energy of more than 10 billion megatonnes. This is a thousand times the amount of energy contained in all the world's nuclear
weapons arsenals. p.254.
The Dinosaurs Rediscovered, MICHAEL J. BENTON, 2019.
The Chicxulub impactor had an estimated diameter of 11-81 kilometers (6.8-50.3 mi), and delivered an estimated energy of 21-921 billion Hiroshima A-bombs
(between 1.3x1024 and 5.8x1025 joules, or 1.3-58 yottajoules). For comparison, this is ~100 million times the energy released by the
Tsar Bomba, a thermonuclear device ("H-bomb") that remains the most powerful human-made explosive ever detonated, which released 210 petajoules
(2.1x1017 joules, or 50 megatons TNT).
http://web.archive.org/web/20211228051109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
Note: See Ref 1.
They definitely had found something destructive enough to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs. And the simulated scenarios suggest it was quite a deadly impact:
Within two minutes of slamming into Earth, the asteroid, which was at least six miles wide, had gouged a crater about eighteen miles deep and lofted
twenty-five trillion metric tons of debris into the atmosphere. Picture the splash of a pebble falling into pond water, but on a planetary scale. When
Earth's crust rebounded, a peak higher than Mt. Everest briefly rose up. The energy released was more than that of a billion Hiroshima bombs, ...
Earth itself became toxic. When the asteroid struck, it vaporized layers of limestone, releasing into the atmosphere a trillion tons of carbon dioxide,
ten billion tons of methane, and a billion tons of carbon monoxide; all three are powerful greenhouse gases. The impact also vaporized anhydrite rock,
which blasted ten trillion tons of sulfur compounds aloft. The sulfur combined with water to form sulfuric acid, which then fell as an acid rain that
may have been potent enough to strip the leaves from any surviving plants and to leach the nutrients from the soil.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died
Then acid rain, formed from the nitrous oxide and sulfates clogging the atmosphere, began to hammer down on the surface, killing plants and animals and
even dissolving rocks. This rain would have been as corrosive as battery acid and its most devastating effect would have been to destroy the shells of
small marine organisms. p.165.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.
A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans.
The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.
“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction
Note: See Ref 2.
A study of boron isotopes in the tests of foraminifera that lived deep in the oceans and near their surface just after the K-Pg boundary event has revealed that ocean water suddenly became more acidic (Henehan, M.J. and 13 others 2019. Rapid ocean acidification and protracted Earth system recovery followed the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Online; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905989116).
https://earthlogs.org/2019/10/25/what-followed-the-k-pg-extinction-event/
The effects of the sulphuric acid on the climate was so severe that the computer simulations found it would have taken at least 30 years for the global
climate to recover.
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/dinosaurs-extinction-simulation
An enormous tactical blunder
Of course going public with all of this was an enormous tactical blunder. The calculated destruction was just too large. Some evolutionists even spoke out against it:
What do we do with these impact scenarios? Naturally, we compare them with the evidence from the geological record. Birds, tortoises, and mammals live on
land and breathe air: the evidence from the K-T boundary shows that they survived the K-T boundary event. Therefore they and the air they breathed
weren't set on broil for several hours. To put it simply, these scenarios did not happen.
History of Life, Richard Cowen, 2000, p.290.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/events/cowen2b.html
Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.
Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.
Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.
The survival of birds is the strangest of all the K-T boundary events, if we are to accept the catastrophic scenarios. Smaller dinosaurs overlapped with
larger birds in size and in ecological roles as terrestrial bipeds. How did birds survive while dinosaurs did not? Birds seek food in the open, by sight;
they are small and warm-blooded, with high metabolic rates and small energy stores. Even a sudden storm or a slightly severe winter can cause high
mortality among bird populations. Yet an impact scenario, according to its enthusiasts, includes "a nightmare of environmental disasters, including
storms, tsunamis, cold and darkness, greenhouse warming, acid rains and global fires." There must be some explanation for the survival of birds, turtles,
and crocodiles through any catastrophe of this scale, or else the catastrophe models are wrong.
History of Life, Richard Cowen, 2000, p.295.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/events/cowen3b.html
Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.
Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.
Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.
The theory is now widely accepted by the scientific community. Some critics, including paleontologist Robert Bakker, argue that such an impact would have killed frogs as well as dinosaurs, yet the frogs survived the extinction event.
http://web.archive.org/web/20211228051109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
Frogs
Frogs
Frogs
there was no extinction in the insects, a group that should have been the most sensitive to a global catastrophe predicted by the impact advocates. ...
Nor do the birds show much extinction, even though they too should have been vulnerable (Chiappe 1995). ...
some extreme impact scenarios postulate extensive acid rain bathing the earth for a long time after the impact. However, the survival of amphibians shows
that this is simply a fantasy (Weil 1984). Amphibians breathe through their porous skins and are sensitive to slight changes in the acidity of their
watery habitat. Even now, the slightly more acidic conditions of lakes and ponds due to human-induced acid rain are causing frogs and salamanders to die
out rapidly. If the entire earth had been subjected to a huge acid bath, there simply would not be a frog or salamander alive on the earth today. p.38.
After the Dinosaurs, Donald R. Prothero, 2006.
Frogs, Salamanders
Frogs, Salamanders
Frogs, Salamanders
So just how would the birds have gone with all of this happening?
Canaries were used "in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans". "Canaries, like other birds, are good early
detectors of carbon monoxide because they're vulnerable to airborne poisons."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/story-real-canary-coal-mine-180961570/
Birds are vulnerable to airborne poisons!!
Since birds are vulnerable to airborne poisons it is very clear that they should have gone completely extinct along with the dinosaurs when the meteor
supposedly impacted our planet 66 million years ago. In fact all susceptible species like birds, salamanders, and frogs, probably would have gone extinct
even before the dinosaurs!
It makes sense that the most susceptible species would be the very first to go. And that means birds, salamanders, and frogs!
And Evolutionists are completely at a loss how to explain the survival of the birds:
Of the many great dinosaurian lineages, only the birds made it through the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous - but nobody is quite sure why.
p.162.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.
Early members of the palaeognath lineage survived (the group that includes ostriches and emus), as did members of the wildfowl and gamebird lineage, as
did members of the lineage that led to seabirds, hawks, perching birds, and so on.
Why these bird groups survived when other dinosaur groups didn't is a good question, and one that hasn't been answered satisfactorily. p.208.
Dinosaurs: How they lived and evolved. Darren Naish & Paul M. Barrett, CSIRO Publishing, 2018.
Simply a Fantasy
Of course there is no answer. If we accept the Alvarez Hypothesis, then the birds should have gone extinct with the dinosaurs, along with the salamanders and frogs. So just what conclusion can we draw from this? Actually, one of the dissenting Evolutionists has given us the answer:
some extreme impact scenarios postulate extensive acid rain bathing the earth for a long time after the impact. However, the survival of amphibians shows
that this is simply a fantasy (Weil 1984). p.38.
After the Dinosaurs, Donald R. Prothero, 2006.
Some species that should be extinct!
Some species that should be extinct!
Some species that should be extinct!
If the extreme impact scenarios are simply a fantasy, then so is the evidence supporting the Alvarez Hypothesis. This includes rocks, and fossils [including embedded/ingested tektites from the impact fallout], and strangely, even a 170 km wide 20 km deep crater! The crater was discovered in the late 1970s though not recognized as such until 1990. Subsequent dating linked it with the Alvarez Hypothesis and the dinosaur Extinction Event.
The Chicxulub crater (IPA: [tʃikʃuˈlub]) is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore near the communities of Chicxulub Puerto and Chicxulub Pueblo, after which the crater is named. It was formed when a large asteroid, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in diameter, struck the Earth. The date of the impact coincides precisely with the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (commonly known as the "K–Pg boundary"), slightly more than 66 million years ago, and a widely accepted theory is that worldwide climate disruption from the event was the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction in which 75% of plant and animal species on Earth became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
The crater is estimated to be 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) in depth, well into the continental crust of the region of about 10–30 kilometers (6.2–18.6 miles) in depth.
The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield, geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán Peninsula during the late 1970s. Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search. Later, through contact with Alan R. Hildebrand in 1990, Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature. Evidence for the impact origin of the crater includes shocked quartz, a gravity anomaly, and tektites in surrounding areas.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220105113846/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
There appears to be some division over the actual size of the crater and one paper I found on this is:
CHICXULUB CRATER SIZE AND STRUCTURE AS REVEALED BY HORIZONTAL BOUGUER GRAVITY GRADIENTS AND CENOTE DISTRIBUTION; A.R. Hildebrand, et at.
The size of the Chicxulub crater, Yucatan, Mexico is currently in dispute with diameter estimates ranging from 170km upwards of 300 km ...
No concentric gradient features were found at distances >85 km radius. ...
The cenotes' distribution does not reveal any concentric structure at radii >85 km; ...
This terrace width satisfies the relationship defined by lunar craters for a crater of 170 km diameter
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc1995/pdf/1302.pdf
Note: See Ref 3.
This document gives a footnote on each page stating "Lunar and Planetary Institute Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System" which does suggest this document carries a reasonable amount of weight on this topic. That said, I am going to use their suggested crater diameter value of 170 km.
And though this may be debatable it should still be a reasonable estimate and is the one I will use.
And our conclusion of all of this being simply a fantasy throws a complete spanner into the works. Just what does it mean if all of this is simply a
fantasy?
- The rocks can no longer be considered to give a reliable record of the past of this planet!
- The fossils can no longer be considered to give a reliable record of the past life of this planet!
- The 170 km wide 20 km deep Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico can no longer be considered to be a reliable record of a supposed meteor impact that occurred 66 million years ago and which caused the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs!
And just what does all this mean?
No meteor impacted this planet 66 million years ago causing some supposed extinction of the dinosaurs.
A complete fabrication
In fact if the fossils are not a reliable record of past life then the dinosaur fossils are in question. All of them! From this we can conclude that the non-avian dinosaurs never existed as living breathing creatures and that none of them ever lived or walked on this planet at any time in the past.
But the fossils exist so how can this be? Simply that they are not fossil remains, but fossil constructions. When this world came into existence it appears
that something like many thousands of feet of rock layers full of all sorts of interesting stuff were added. All a fabrication or a construction.
And the interesting question is just who or what could have done this?
A far more interesting question is just who or what would have the actual power to be able to do this!
As a Christian I have absolutely no problem with these questions. None whatsoever.
But I think the Evolutionists are in trouble. Real big trouble.
This is an act of creation and the only thing that could do that is a deity.
And that takes this completely outside the scope of Evolutionary Science.
But not Christianity.
The level of detail that has been built into these added rock layers by this deity is far beyond the comprehension of mortal minds!
Postscript
The Evolutionists are now running in backpedalling mode, trying to dig themselves out of a hole larger than the one the meteor supposedly made 66 million years ago. They may be writing that the effect of the impact was not as bad as originally thought and that as a result the frogs and salamanders and other susceptible species survived.
I give an answer to this on my Backpedalling Evolutionists page.
And they are definitely writing a lot of possible ways the birds may have survived but when you look closely at the suggestions, it's a bit of a stretch.
I also have some curious pages dedicated to how the birds may have survived.
REFERENCES
Because the interval of time that separates us from the formation of Chicxulub is so large, the evidence that could help to reconstruct impactor features
are few. The most obvious is the diameter of the crater, which is between 180 and 200 km (Schulte et al., 2010). With these extreme values and equations
(2.1.2), (2.2.2), (2.3.2), (2.4.10) we can estimate the energy of the impactor.
Mystery solved: ocean acidity in the last mass extinction
Because the interval of time that separates us from the formation of Chicxulub is so large, the evidence that could help to reconstruct impactor features
are few. The most obvious is the diameter of the crater, which is between 180 and 200 km (Schulte et al., 2010). With these extreme values and equations
(2.1.2), (2.2.2), (2.3.2), (2.4.10) we can estimate the energy of the impactor.
Mystery solved: ocean acidity in the last mass extinction
Ma - million years ago.
Ba - billion years ago.
K-T, K-Pg boundary, extinction event
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters
of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event
Chicxulub
pronounced [and my choice of a few]:
"Chik-shoo-loob"
Experts Reaffirm Asteroid Impact Caused Mass Extinction
MARCH 4, 2010
Some scientists have suggested that the Chicxulub (“chik-shoo-loob”) impact in Mexico ...
https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2010/03/experts-reaffirm-asteroid-impact-caused-mass-extinction/
Luis and Walter Alvarez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LWA_with_Walt.JPG
Luis Walter Alvarez (left) and his son Walter Alvarez (right) at the K-T Boundary in Bottaccione Gorge, near Gubbio, Italy
Author: U S Government
Public domain
Chicxulub impact site
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicxulub_impact_-_artist_impression.jpg
This painting by Donald E. Davis depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast
Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction
of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide
blackout and freezing temperatures which persisted for at least a decade. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up
to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds.
Author: Donald E. Davis
Public domain
University of California Museum of Paleontology's Understanding Science (http://www.understandingscience.org).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domestic_canary_2.jpg
A yellow domestic canary on a cage.
Attribution: Yavor Uzunov
Public domain
1. The two guys from Mexico:
We considered the density of the projectile as 1650 kg m-3 for comets (Greenberg, 1998), 3400 kg m-3 for stony asteroids (Wilkison and Robinson, 2000), and 8000 kg m-3 for iron asteroids (Hills and Goda, 1993). ... Steel (1998) obtained an estimation of the range of velocities for bodies that cross Earth's orbit. For asteroids the interval is between 12.6 km s-1 and 40.7 km s-1. This result is based on measurements of the velocities of the asteroids that cross Earth's orbit.
The range for comets is between 16 km s-1 and 73 km s-1.
we concluded that the most probable impactor was a fast asteroid or a long-period comet with energy between 1.3x1024 J and 5.8x1025
J, mass between 1.0x1015 kg and 4.6x1017 kg, and diameter between 10.6 km and 80.9 km.
Assessments of the energy, mass and size of the Chicxulub Impactor
Hector Javier Durand-Manterola and Guadalupe Cordero-Tercero
Departamento de Ciencias Espaciales, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México
https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6391
By Jim Sheltonoctober 21, 2019
A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans. The findings may also answer questions about how marine life eventually recovered.
The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.
“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.
The new study also may have settled a question regarding ocean pH levels leading up to K-Pg. Some researchers have theorized that volcanic eruptions starting hundreds of thousands of years before K-Pg had progressively made Earth more prone to a mass extinction event. This should be reflected in a steady decline in ocean pH levels up until the extinction.
“What we can show is that there is no real signal of gradual pH decline in the ocean in the lead-up to K-Pg,” Henehan said. “Our results do not support any major role for volcanic activity in priming the world for extinction.”
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction
3. 170 km wide crater? There appears to be little unanimity on the actual diameter of the crater with some estimates up to 200 km or more. Quote gives reasons for choosing 170 km. Also a little more detail is given on my Chicxulub Impactor page.
Note: the larger diameters are obviously what's more easy to see but after supposedly 66 million years of erosion etc. The true original diameter may no longer be obvious and only discernable using special technical methods.
Bird pics
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain
Frog
Temporal range:
Early Jurassic - Present, 200-0 Ma
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (literally without tail
in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may
extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago.
They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage.
For the skin to serve as a respiratory organ, it must remain moist. This makes frogs susceptible to various substances they may encounter in the environment,
some of which may be toxic and can dissolve in the water film and be passed into their bloodstream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Litoria_phyllochroa.JPG
Attribution: Froggydarb
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Crocodile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nile_croc_couple_690V1510_-_Flickr_-_Lip_Kee.jpg
Attribution: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Platypus + Echidna pics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monotreme_collage.jpg
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica
eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right).
Constituent files:
File:Platypus BrokenRiver QLD Australia.jpg
File:Long-beakedEchidna.jpg
File:Echidna in the Karawatha Forest - Radford.jpg
File:Zaglossus bartoni - MUSE.JPG
Attribution: Ypna
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Monotremes
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Recent
[pic]
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica
eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right)
Monotremes (/ˈmɒnətriːmz/, from Greek μονός, monos ('single') and τρῆμα, trema ('hole'), referring to the cloaca) are one of the three main groups of living
mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme
The platypus is one of the few monotremes still in existence today. The egg-laying mammal was only recently discovered to have lived during the Jurassic
period. After analyzing a Teinolophos jawbone in 2008, University of Texas paleontologist Tim Rowe discovered that platypuses dated back as far as 122
million years ago.
Platypuses are one of only two mammalian species that lay eggs, the other being echidnas, or spiny anteaters.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/animals-as-old-as-dinosaurs_n_6982300
Teinolophos
Temporal range: Aptian ~120-113 Ma
Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected
from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the Aptian age of the Lower Cretaceous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teinolophos
Platypus
Evolution, paleontology, and classification
Aquatically adapted platypus-like monotremes probably evolved from a more-generalized terrestrial monotreme. The first occurrence in the fossil record of a
platypus-like monotreme is from about 110 million years ago, in the early Cretaceous Period, when Australia was still connected to South America by Antarctica.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus
Salamander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpottedSalamander.jpg
Attribution: Camazine at English Wikipedia
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Salamander
Temporal range:
Late Jurassic - Present, 160-0 Ma
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by a lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at
right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander
Tortoise
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain
Turtle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_Box_Turtle_Digon3_re-edited.jpg
Florida Box Turtle
Attribution: Jonathan Zander (Digon3)
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Ma - million years ago.
Ba - billion years ago.
K-T, K-Pg boundary, extinction event
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters
of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event
Chicxulub
pronounced [and my choice of a few]:
"Chik-shoo-loob"
Experts Reaffirm Asteroid Impact Caused Mass Extinction
MARCH 4, 2010
Some scientists have suggested that the Chicxulub (“chik-shoo-loob”) impact in Mexico ...
https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2010/03/experts-reaffirm-asteroid-impact-caused-mass-extinction/
Luis and Walter Alvarez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LWA_with_Walt.JPG
Luis Walter Alvarez (left) and his son Walter Alvarez (right) at the K-T Boundary in Bottaccione Gorge, near Gubbio, Italy
Author: U S Government
Public domain
Chicxulub impact site
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicxulub_impact_-_artist_impression.jpg
This painting by Donald E. Davis depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast
Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction
of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide
blackout and freezing temperatures which persisted for at least a decade. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up
to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds.
Author: Donald E. Davis
Public domain
University of California Museum of Paleontology's Understanding Science (http://www.understandingscience.org).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domestic_canary_2.jpg
A yellow domestic canary on a cage.
Attribution: Yavor Uzunov
Public domain
1. The two guys from Mexico:
We considered the density of the projectile as 1650 kg m-3 for comets (Greenberg, 1998), 3400 kg m-3 for stony asteroids (Wilkison and Robinson, 2000), and 8000 kg m-3 for iron asteroids (Hills and Goda, 1993). ... Steel (1998) obtained an estimation of the range of velocities for bodies that cross Earth's orbit. For asteroids the interval is between 12.6 km s-1 and 40.7 km s-1. This result is based on measurements of the velocities of the asteroids that cross Earth's orbit.
The range for comets is between 16 km s-1 and 73 km s-1.
we concluded that the most probable impactor was a fast asteroid or a long-period comet with energy between 1.3x1024 J and 5.8x1025
J, mass between 1.0x1015 kg and 4.6x1017 kg, and diameter between 10.6 km and 80.9 km.
Assessments of the energy, mass and size of the Chicxulub Impactor
Hector Javier Durand-Manterola and Guadalupe Cordero-Tercero
Departamento de Ciencias Espaciales, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México
https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6391
By Jim Sheltonoctober 21, 2019
A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans. The findings may also answer questions about how marine life eventually recovered.
The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.
“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.
The new study also may have settled a question regarding ocean pH levels leading up to K-Pg. Some researchers have theorized that volcanic eruptions starting hundreds of thousands of years before K-Pg had progressively made Earth more prone to a mass extinction event. This should be reflected in a steady decline in ocean pH levels up until the extinction.
“What we can show is that there is no real signal of gradual pH decline in the ocean in the lead-up to K-Pg,” Henehan said. “Our results do not support any major role for volcanic activity in priming the world for extinction.”
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction
3. 170 km wide crater? There appears to be little unanimity on the actual diameter of the crater with some estimates up to 200 km or more. Quote gives reasons for choosing 170 km. Also a little more detail is given on my Chicxulub Impactor page.
Note: the larger diameters are obviously what's more easy to see but after supposedly 66 million years of erosion etc. The true original diameter may no longer be obvious and only discernable using special technical methods.
Bird pics
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain
Frog
Temporal range:
Early Jurassic - Present, 200-0 Ma
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (literally without tail
in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may
extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago.
They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage.
For the skin to serve as a respiratory organ, it must remain moist. This makes frogs susceptible to various substances they may encounter in the environment,
some of which may be toxic and can dissolve in the water film and be passed into their bloodstream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Litoria_phyllochroa.JPG
Attribution: Froggydarb
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Crocodile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nile_croc_couple_690V1510_-_Flickr_-_Lip_Kee.jpg
Attribution: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Platypus + Echidna pics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monotreme_collage.jpg
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica
eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right).
Constituent files:
File:Platypus BrokenRiver QLD Australia.jpg
File:Long-beakedEchidna.jpg
File:Echidna in the Karawatha Forest - Radford.jpg
File:Zaglossus bartoni - MUSE.JPG
Attribution: Ypna
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Monotremes
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Recent
[pic]
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica
eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right)
Monotremes (/ˈmɒnətriːmz/, from Greek μονός, monos ('single') and τρῆμα, trema ('hole'), referring to the cloaca) are one of the three main groups of living
mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme
The platypus is one of the few monotremes still in existence today. The egg-laying mammal was only recently discovered to have lived during the Jurassic
period. After analyzing a Teinolophos jawbone in 2008, University of Texas paleontologist Tim Rowe discovered that platypuses dated back as far as 122
million years ago.
Platypuses are one of only two mammalian species that lay eggs, the other being echidnas, or spiny anteaters.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/animals-as-old-as-dinosaurs_n_6982300
Teinolophos
Temporal range: Aptian ~120-113 Ma
Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected
from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the Aptian age of the Lower Cretaceous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teinolophos
Platypus
Evolution, paleontology, and classification
Aquatically adapted platypus-like monotremes probably evolved from a more-generalized terrestrial monotreme. The first occurrence in the fossil record of a
platypus-like monotreme is from about 110 million years ago, in the early Cretaceous Period, when Australia was still connected to South America by Antarctica.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus
Salamander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpottedSalamander.jpg
Attribution: Camazine at English Wikipedia
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Salamander
Temporal range:
Late Jurassic - Present, 160-0 Ma
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by a lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at
right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander
Tortoise
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain
Turtle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_Box_Turtle_Digon3_re-edited.jpg
Florida Box Turtle
Attribution: Jonathan Zander (Digon3)
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Stephen Buckley
E-mail: stephen [at] greatesthoax.info
Last revised: 8 Apr 2023.
Construction started about 24 Oct 2020.
Companion pages
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Page design/construction Stephen Buckley 2020.