Volcanoes are the cause of the extinction of dinosaurs?

New studies have confirmed that a series of strong volcanic eruptions is the cause of the extinction of dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs have existed on Earth for nearly 160 million years. Appearing at the end of the Triassic period, about 230 million years ago, they suddenly disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period, leaving almost no descendants. This sudden extinction is only explained by a widespread disaster. So far, it is thought that the main cause of a meteorite falls in the Gulf of Mexico disturbs the global climate.

The investigation was carried out this time on the Dekkhan plateau in India. This area is well known by volcanologists: it is made up of layers of stacked lava, evidence of a special active volcanic phase, also known as trapps (from the Swedish root). Dictionary means ladder.

(Photo: Linternaute) The age of radioactive isotope proof that lava has been deposited about 65 million years ago in a relatively short geological period (about 1 million years), coinciding with extinction. of dinosaurs.

To better understand, geologists have studied these lava flows in detail with the fossils inside. They found that in the last lava flow of dinosaurs that emerged after the mass extinction in the Cretaceous period and estimated the time of the last eruption about 28,000 years ago after the extinction. .

According to the researchers, this series of eruptions is the cause of the disappearance of dinosaurs . The power of these eruptions has erupted a large amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing climate change to make most of the animals living at that time extinct.

The researchers also explained that new animals have appeared in time, because successive eruptions have caused climate change. It is this slow recovery that does not ' fit ' with the meteorite hypothesis.