DID ASTEROIDS KILL THE DINOSAURS AFTER ALL? NEW EVIDENCE MAY CONFIRM THE THEORY
courtesy howstuffworks.com
It seems the old theory of asteroid impact killing our dinosaurs might not have been so wrong after all.
Fresh new evidence seems to support the theory.
The original theory formulated that an asteroid or a comet, about six miles in diameter had hit the surface of the earth, thereby causing a impact as violent as one billion times the energy released by the Hiroshima bomb.
The new evidence stems from radiometric analysis, a new tool for the dating of matter, of debris appears to show that not one but two events occurred, only 33,000 years apart, a blip in the extent of time involved, which show that the extinction occurred almost simultaneously with the impacts, whereas before skeptics had cited a divergence of more than 300,000-1,000,000 years from the impact and the mas extinction due to less precise system of dating.
Geologist Walter Alvarez, the lead proponent of the theory is thrilled that the new measuring tool has revealed such new evidence.
Scientists caution however, that the extinction came on the heels of more than the impact, since wild swings in the weather in the preceding million years had significantly impacted earth population. However, with the system stressed by climate change, the impacts seem to be with little doubt the 'death' blows to the dinosaur population.
Source: Live science 2.8.13
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