availability and tangibility of supporting evidence in the form of impact craters- the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula's date and timing of impact (dating produced an almost exact date of 65 million years ago), location, enormous size-170 km (Hildebrand et al.1991) and its high iridium content ( a metal not commonly found at the Earth's surface) make it seem that with a theoretical asteroid 10 km big caused the crater great damage at the end of the Cretaceous (Alvarez et al. 1980). How exactly
contain extraordinary amounts of the metal iridium. And those materials of the rocks would not normally found on Earth’s surface. Then, they discovered those rocks were asteroids. Scientist discovered the K-T impact crater was deeply buried under in Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. The crater was 150-kilometer-wide. Scientists calculated that it likely caused by an object about 6 miles (10 km) across, would have released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT. (Choi & Contributor, 2016) Moreover, scientists
1980s, researchers Luis and Walter Alvarez discovered a layer of iridium on the earth’s surface. It suggests that a comet, space rock or meteor effect might have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. In the 1990s, researchers found the enormous Chicxulub Crater at the tip of Mexico’s Yucantan Peninsula, which dates to the period being referred [1]. There are various theories, yet no proofs. Dinosaurs wandered the earth for about 160 million years until their sudden eradication approximately 65 million
Peninsula at the end of the end of the Mesozoic Era, 65 million years ago. Walter Alvarez first discovered a meteorite big enough to be called a small asteroid that hit the Earth, creating the Chicxulub crater. Once the asteroid struck the North American continent, there were igneous rocks underneath the crater that contained high levels of a rare siderophile element, iridium. This catrostopic event had a massive effect on the environment, as several mammals, birds, and plants became extinct. It also
Though there is not one definitive explanation to explain dinosaurs' extinction, there are various theories that attempt to account for the mystery of their extinction. The theories that explain their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period are the asteroid, the volcanoes, and the major climatic changes. The most popular theory for the extinction of the dinosaurs is that the Earth was hit by an asteroid or a comet. Was the impact actually the cause behind the dinosaur’s extinction? Or was
Examining the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event Over 98% of all organisms that have lived on Earth are now extinct. A mass extinction event occurs when a large number of species die out within a small time frame (relative to the age of Earth). Mass extinctions are intensively studied for both cause and effect, as there is usually room for debate regarding catalysts that precede the extinction and the massive influx of new biological species that follows. There have been five major mass extinctions
The species that survived the dinosaur extinction are believed to be what life on this planet is descended from. Aligators, crocodiles, lizards and snakes are among the reptiles that survived what dinosaurs couldn’t. Birds also survived, and are the only descendants of dinosaurs that survived the mass extinction other than lizards. Frogs and salamanders are among the few small amphibians that survived. Mammals also survived and they are the largest group to survive the extinction. Over 50% of the
The dinosaurs lived on earth for about 165 million years before an asteroid lead to their Extinction (Weems, Robert). Over the years, several theories have been made regarding the extinction of the dinosaurs. The first theory is that the dinosaurs died from global plagues or a supernova. The second theory is that the dinosaurs died from an asteroid hitting the earth.This paper will explain why the second theory is the correct theory. While some experts believe the dinosaurs became extinct due to
Dinosaur Extinction Sixty-Five Million years ago, a giant space rock believed to be some six miles across hit Earth near the town of Chicxulub, Mexico, blasting a crater more than 110 miles wide. The impact is believed to have released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT, more than 1 billion times the power of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The giant mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the seas and the pterosaurs in the skies. Plankton, the base of the ocean
there is to be for the extinction of the dinosaurs. This is due to the fact that this theory has lots of scientific proof to support its theory. There is a crater that is approximately 150 kilometers in width. Experts have analyzed this crater and have come to a conclusion that an asteroid that had a width of 10 kilometers crashed at Chicxulub on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico around about 65 million years ago (this around the same time the dinosaurs went extinct. (Pilkington, 2001) If the asteroid