Challenge the meteor hypothesis that extinct dinosaurs

In an article published in the Journal of the Geological Society on April 27, 2009, the hypothesis has long been accepted that the Chicxulub crater holds a clue about the disappearance of dinosaurs, along with about 65 % of other species from 65 million years ago have been questioned .

This crater was discovered in 1978 in the northern Yucutan, with a diameter of about 180 kilometers (112 miles), which is the vestige of a horrifying meteorite collision.

When people discovered small spheres from the collision of the fighting between the Cretaceous and the Third Century, they were quickly identified as guns still fuming that caused a disaster. Terrifying extinction occurred 65 million years ago.

This is an event that witnessed the extinction of dinosaurs along with countless other plant and animal species. However, many scientists still do not fully agree with this view.

The latest study by Gerta Keller of Princeton University in New Jersey and Thierry Adatte of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland made use of evidence gathered in Mexico to argue that the Chicxulub collision occurred before the moment. transfer between the Cretaceous and the Third century to 300,000 years .

H. Richard Lane, program director of the National Science Foundation - Department of Earth Sciences, said: ' Keller and his colleagues continue to gather detailed stratigraphic information to prove their new perspective. about this Chicxulub collision as well as a large-scale extinction disaster that occurred in the late Cretaceous period. The above two events may not be related to each other '.

Chicxulub Crater Artwork at the time of the meteor crash.(Photo: NASA)

According to Keller, from El Penon to other locations in Mexico, ' we know that to get 4 to 9 meters of land, it takes 2 to 3 centimeters to be accreted every one thousand years after the collision. The severity of extinction can be revealed through the sediment layer of this intervening period . '

Disaster hypothesis supporters Chicxulub argues that the crater where events and mass extinctions occur seems to happen too far according to sediment analysis information by the impact of earthquakes or tsunamis. caused by the impact of meteors when falling to earth.

Keller said: ' The problem with tsunami ideas is that sandstone is not accreted every hour or every day by tsunamis. Depression occurs during a long process . '

The study found that separating sediments separates two events that characterize a process of normal sediment formation with caves made by marine bottom organisms, erosion and sediment migration, no There is no evidence of structural change.

Scientists also discovered evidence that the Chicxulub collision had no major impact on the diversity of species as it was thought .

At a site in El Penon, the researchers found 52 species that appear in sediments beneath the layers of the sphere, and 52 species still appear in layers above the sphere.

Keller said: ' We found that no species was extinct due to the impact of the Chicxulub collision '. This conclusion is not too surprising. There is no major extinction event associated with this collision, and there is no large crater that is associated with the cause of mass extinction.

Keller argues that intense volcanic eruptions at the Deccan Traps in India may have caused a catastrophic disaster, which created a large amount of dust that prevented sunlight from causing a dramatic greenhouse effect. .