New proof that asteroid impact dealt the dinosaurs a quick death blow

The title should read "New evidence that asteroid impact dealt the dinosaurs a quick death blow". Science doesn't deal in proof. It deals in probabilities. The probability on this one however, is quite high.

Currently, the main suspect behind this catastrophe is a cosmic impact from an asteroid or comet, an idea first proposed by physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez. Scientists later found that signs of this collision seemed evident near the town of Chicxulub (CHEEK-sheh-loob) in Mexico in the form of a gargantuan crater more than 110 miles (180 kilometers) wide. The explosion, likely caused by an object about 6 miles (10 kilometers) across, would have released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT, more than a billion times more than the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I'd have never thought the impact that helped finish off the Dino's was right here in the America's.

(Image Caption) Near Jordan, Mont., rock layers expose the level (lower arrow) where dinosaurs and many other animals and plants went extinct. The arrows point to coal beds that contain thin volcanic ash layers that were dated.

Although the cosmic impact and mass extinction coincided in time, Renne cautioned this does not mean the impact was the only cause of the die-offs. For instance, dramatic climate swings in the preceding million years, including long cold snaps in the general hothouse environment of the Cretaceous, probably brought many creatures to the brink of extinction. The volcanic eruptions behind the Deccan Traps might be one cause of these climate variations.

The article says the date is within 11,000 years of accuracy using radiometric dating analysis. That's impressive.

To sum it up, they believe extinction was already inevitable, and had been coming on for the previous million or so years. The asteroid impact was just the final blow that finished them off.

I think what is almost as interesting as the results of their findings, is the accuracy that has developed over time, allowing our sciences to be much more precise in dating techniques as they're refined.
Source

Just think: if this hadn't happened, we would have no way to fill up our cars.

No, but seriously - this is very cool. Thanks for posting.

Yeah and then it said we all came from a cute squirrel like creature afterwards. Funny no one can find any evidence of that though aye. Oh DNA? yeah that supports creation though. I want to see constructive step by step evidence of change from squirrel to man.

As there is none, faith is all that holds the theory together,

Wow. The faith some people have in evolution actually outweighs anyone's religious faith by an absolutely enormous measure. I'm in awe at that level of faith, it exceeds anyone faith who believe in a creator from another time and space.

Seriously. I am actually in awe of that level of faith.

reply to post by Klassified


Yeah I remember when they said it was in mexico and was only like 2 miles wide or something.

Now there saying things like 6 miles wide.

Huh! Well if a 6 mile asteroid hit the earth. and wiped out the dino's why do we still have dino's living today like the wooly mammoth evolved elephant?

Life would have started over! We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be land animals yet.

Isn't said that modern day atom bombs with millions time more force then the ones dropped in japan would destroy the earth or life as we know it.

So this 6 mile wide asteroid is billion times more powerful.

Wow. WAKE UP PEOPLE.

Originally posted by Schkeptick
Just think: if this hadn't happened, we would have no way to fill up our cars.

No, but seriously - this is very cool. Thanks for posting.

No nono!!! Haha, that's not right, if you think about it, we didn't go from discovering fossil fuels to sticking it in a car. The car and all petroleum based machines are a result of playing with the originating stuff.. hey it does this pretty good, sure there's a little smoke. but who cares!!!! fast forward to today.

If it hadn't been fossil fuels, we definitely would have tapped a different resource due to our sheer ability to break everything and find out how it ticks.

We're only stuck on this route because as soon as we make something efficient enough for everyone to use, it becomes a reliance to us, and we can't see any other way to do things.

We limit ourselves in old thinking and that spark of ingenuity is coming in far and few between these days.

reply to post by pacifier2012


That's sad. That you have absolutely no way to learn differently and sound petulant in your inability to think logically.

I wonder if it's because you don't want to even look at the plethora of evidence supporting evolution.. feel annoyed that everyone laughs at god and his feeble earth bound minions, or because you truly just don't have the capacity to look at the evidence and see it for what it is.

Unlike god and his faery dust, the things that give evolution tangible credibility are all around you in the very things that you see and touch every single day.

Sure it's a faith of sorts, but one born from research, investigation and our ability to reason. God turns all of that into nonsense because faith drives gods car. Without faith in god, there is no evidence, no strand of logic, no tangible thing that says he was ever here.

Originally posted by metalholic
reply to post by Klassified

 

Yeah I remember when they said it was in mexico and was only like 2 miles wide or something.

Now there saying things like 6 miles wide.

Huh! Well if a 6 mile asteroid hit the earth. and wiped out the dino's why do we still have dino's living today like the wooly mammoth evolved elephant?

Life would have started over! We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be land animals yet.

edit on 8-2-2013 by metalholic because: (no reason given)

Elephants are mammals.

Dinosaurs were not.

Here is the future. iPod says no.

sigh

They have never found a dinosaur fossil in the KT boundary. Until they do, the asteroid could not have killed them. They were already dead. Up to it is not in it. None have been found in it. If a world wide event happens and kills millions upon millions of animals, one would expect there to be fossils in the layer made by the event. But there are none.

Dinosaurs were gone before the impact. Killed by gases let out by volcanic eruptions. This ruined the environment. Acid rain from the volcanoes killed too much vegetation and that broke the food web. The animals starved. The acid rain killed many kinds of plants too.

When the meteor hit there were no dinosaurs left to kill. Or they could have been very few and on the brink of destruction and the meteorite just finished them off. But there is no evidence for that. The evidence says they were gone.

reply to post by winofiend


Yeah it went over your head genius. Notice that's the only thing you could actually reply to. YEAH!

Originally posted by pacifier2012
Yeah and then it said we all came from a cute squirrel like creature afterwards. Funny no one can find any evidence of that though aye. Oh DNA? yeah that supports creation though. I want to see constructive step by step evidence of change from squirrel to man.

As there is none, faith is all that holds the theory together,

Wow. The faith some people have in evolution actually outweighs anyone's religious faith by an absolutely enormous measure. I'm in awe at that level of faith, it exceeds anyone faith who believe in a creator from another time and space.

Seriously. I am actually in awe of that level of faith.

Its not exactly faith, more like a very educated guess based on available evidence.

It differs from religion in that religious faith is based on a book which has been proven to be manmade and to anyone who isnt brainwashed it obvious its been edited and made to fit an agenda.

Also no one is gonna kill anyone over the details of exactly how it happened or what the rules of it are.

Ill take my faith in evolution over religious delusions anyday

reply to post by pacifier2012

I want to see constructive step by step evidence of change from squirrel to man.

Science and their lack of evidence! Not like the Bible. That's solid.

Don't look to science to answer any squirrel questions. The Bible's Creationism can explain it with infinite perfection:



Let us both not derail the thread any longer. It should be about dinosaurs. Not about how you think your Bible doesn't believe in those dragons.

reply to post by metalholic

Isn't said that modern day atom bombs with millions time more force then the ones dropped in japan would destroy the earth or life as we know it.

So this 6 mile wide asteroid is billion times more powerful.

Wow. WAKE UP PEOPLE.

In fact that is not said.

We do have much more devastating nuclear explosives now yes. But they won't blow the Earth up.....

Many many would need to be dropped to cause global catastrophe. Even then it wouldn't be the Earth exploding

reply to post by metalholic

Huh! Well if a 6 mile asteroid hit the earth. and wiped out the dino's why do we still have dino's living today like the wooly mammoth evolved elephant?

There is like a 60 million year gap between dinosaur extinction and mammoths.

Someone that knows correct me if I am wrong on that.