It's official: An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs

I found this study pretty interesting.

LONDON (Reuters) – A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs, a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades.

A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years' worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT)extinction, which created a "hellish environment" around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.

Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.

The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.

"We now have great confidence that an asteroid was the cause of the KT extinction. This triggered large-scale fires, earthquakes measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and continental landslides, which created tsunamis," said Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London, a co-author of the review.

The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

Morgan said the "final nail in the coffin for the dinosaurs" came when blasted material flew into the atmosphere, shrouding the planet in darkness, causing a global winter and "killing off many species that couldn't adapt to this hellish environment."

Scientists working on the study analyzed the work of paleontologists, geochemists, climate modelers, geophysicists and sedimentologists who have been collecting evidence about the KTextinction over the last 20 years.

Geological records show the event that triggered the dinosaurs' demise rapidly destroyed marine and land ecosystems, they said, and the asteroid hit "is the only plausible explanation for this."

Peter Schulte of the University of Erlangen in Germany, a lead author on the study, said fossil records clearly show a mass extinction about 65.5 million years ago -- a time now known as the K-Pg boundary.

Despite evidence of active volcanism in India, marine and land ecosystems only showed minor changes in the 500,000 years before the K-Pg boundary, suggesting theextinction did not come earlier and was not prompted by eruptions.

The Deccan volcano theory is also thrown into doubt by models of atmospheric chemistry, the team said, which show the asteroid impact would have released much larger amounts of sulphur, dust and soot in a much shorter time than the volcanic eruptions could have, causing extreme darkening and cooling.

Gareth Collins, another co-author from Imperial College, said the asteroid impact created a "hellish day" that signaled the end of the 160-million-year reign of the dinosaurs, but also turned out to be a great day for mammals.

"The KT extinction was a pivotal moment in Earth's history, which ultimately paved the way for humans to become the dominant species on Earth," he wrote in a commentary on the study.

Very interesting. That's what I thought happened all along. Some people just don't understand the kind of devastation an asteroid of that size hitting earth would do.

I thought the same thing. I would expect complete devastation if that ever happened .

Just let me run this by you. If 65 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out then how could this happen. God asked Noah to put 2 of each animal on the ark now how could he put 2 of each animal on the ark if the dinosaurs were extinct. Also an Ostrich is a type of Dinosaur.

Do you really think Noah could fit 2 of each species on an Arc? Do you know how many species there are in this world?

Do you also realize that they did not have to be full grown.

Even if they were not full grown, there is no possible way you are fitting millions upon millions of species x2 on this so called Arc.

There is no way they could fit them all in an arc. How many species are there anyway? We've only discovered like 10% of all species.

So do you also belive that there was a giant explosion and the next thing that happened we are here.

Probably not instantly, but gradually.

I dont know it sounds kinda bull shitty to me. We dont even know if the earth is 65 million years old. If it was would the ocean not have to much salt to swim in.

Im 1337 lol wrote:

I dont know it sounds kinda bull shitty to me. We dont even know if the earth is 65 million years old. If it was would the ocean not have to much salt to swim in.

The earth is 4.5 billion years old I think, around that anyway!
Maybe Noah built a bunker instead of an arc and shoved all the animals inside?"bunker" must have been translated totally wrong somewhere along the way!

You will never know until you die that is the sad truth. I will rather live in a world after death. Than die and stay dead. That is just me though.

I don't know. I think living forever would be a curse. I'd just rather not exist anymore just like before you were born. I'm not sure on the beginning of the universe, but I believe 100% in Evolution. There are just way too many facts staring us in the face to denounce that theory.

How do you see living forever as a curse I see it as a blessing.

I wouldn't want to live forever, eventually life would just get boring, then it would be torturous to live. But that's just me.

You can be sure as hell I am scared of dieing. I feel shitty thinking that much more important inventions and discoveries will happen after I die, more important than stuff going on now.


The first computer for example


Imagine what it was like hearing about the progression of technology back then, how cool and advanced we felt building something like that!The mobile phone in your pocket is more powerful than that computer.

So.. in 100 years time, sorry to say, but when we are most likely dead, the stuff we have now will be mediocre at best! Computers are doubling in power every year, but what about after we die?So I would say I would personally like to live forever, or until l the day humanity is wiped out!

But a friend once told me, there is no point in living if you worry about the future. Which I am not sure is true or false!

I don't know, maybe something is wrong with me but I could care less about dying. I'm not scared of being gone so much as I'm more scared of how I'm going to die. While it would be cool to see what inventions come out 100 years past my lifetime, I'm not worried about it.

I see it in no way of beign boring because I see it as each day being a new life.

Im 1337 lol wrote:

I see it in no way of beign boring because I see it as each day being a new life.

Ehh, if I think about it, I would just get bored after a while and I would want to die.

Patriotsfan21 wrote:

Im 1337 lol wrote:

I see it in no way of beign boring because I see it as each day being a new life.

Ehh, if I think about it, I would just get bored after a while and I would want to die.

That be a good point, ok so I would like to live until I feel like dieing?