Physical Geology Essay Assignment: Mass Extinctions Topic: The Cretaceous - Tertiary extinction Submitted by Suhaidee Yusoh ID No. 15240 Petroleum Geosciences UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction 1. Introduction Fastovsky‚ D.E. and Weishampel‚ D.B.‚ 2005 defined the mass extinction “Mass extinctions involve large numbers of species and many types of species undergoing global extinction in a geologically short period of time”‚ organisms have gone extinct‚ certainly
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dinosaurs" (Bakker 432). Alvarez believed that " a huge meteor (or asteroid)‚ smashing into the earth at the end of the Cretaceous‚ would blanket an immense area of the earth with its extraterrestrial cargo of iridium because the explosion of the celestial mass would send up vast clouds‚ full of iridium-rich dust" (Bakker 432). An asteroid called Chicxulub hit the earth creating a 150 mile wide crater near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The asteroid is thought to have weighed 4 million tons. When it hit
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theory is so appealing because it explains pretty much all of the “common ground” about the K-Pg event. It explains the climate change‚ the iridium and would of been able cause mass extinction. In 1980 the collision was first theorized by geologist Walter Alvarez and his son after Walter was studying clay deposits from 65 million years ago and found levels of iridium hundreds time more than normal from sample in different parts of the world (SciShow). Other scientist started finding more evidence of an
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For over 150 million years‚ dinosaurs dominated Earth. They were incredibly successful-so successful in fact that all of the other animal groups had no choice but to play a secondary role in nature. 65 million years ago‚ however‚ every species of dinosaur went extinct as well mosasaurs‚ plesiosaurs‚ pterosaurs‚ ammonites‚ and many families of brachiopods and sea sponges. Also‚ many shark species as well as most vegetation did not survive(“Dinosaur Extinction”). What could have possibly killed off
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researcher at the University of California‚ discovered a pencil thin layer of Iridium around the rocks in Gubbio‚ Italy. (New Scientist‚ 1) Iridium is an element found in meteorites and asteroids. In 1980 it was proven that the layer if Iridium was evidence of a huge comet or meteorite that crashed into the earth sixty five million years ago. The normal amount of Iridium an area is to have is 0.001 on an average. The layer of Iridium found in Gubbio Italy was 0.003. Thirty times the average amount in
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before all of its fame and notoriety‚ SpaceX was a startup with lofty goals. In 2010‚ Iridium believed in the company’s vision‚ and contracted with them to launch its entire next-generation global satellite constellation‚ Iridium NEXT‚ becoming SpaceX’s largest commercial customer. Iridium placed its largest initiative in the hands of a startup‚ essentially entrusting the future of the company with SpaceX” (Iridium). There are many space exploration companies out there and it’s not just limited
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volcano-greenhouse theory. <br> <br><b>Details of the Impact Theory</b> <br><li>In the mid-late 1970s‚ Luis Alvarez and his impact team began searching for the cause of the K-T extinctions. <br><li>His evidence of impact was enrichment of the chemical‚ iridium‚ in a thin layer of clay a few centimenters thick at the K-T boundary. His original theory held that a giant asteroid struck earth 65 million years ago‚ blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that it blocked out sunlight‚ and plunged earth into
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Stephen Jay Gould‘s (2002) essay: Sex‚ Drugs‚ disasters‚ and the Extinction of Dinosaurs‚ investigates dinosaur extinction theories. According to Gould‚ scientific conclusions are the consequence; not the essence. Gould believes science’s main problem is the failure to separate fascinating claims from the scientific methods used‚ stating that “…science is‚ basically‚ a way of knowing” (pg.267). Gould examines three proposed ideas of dinosaur extinction. They are sex‚ drugs‚ and violence. Since
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this event was caused by climate and geological changes that interrupted the dinosaurs’ food supply. However‚ in the 1980s‚ father-and-son scientists Luis (1911-88) and Walter Alvarez (1940- ) discovered in the geological record‚ a distinct layer of iridium (an element found in abundance only in space) that corresponds to the precise time the dinosaurs died. This suggests that a comet‚ asteroid or meteor impact event may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. In the 1990s‚ scientists located the
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amount of evidence. In 1980‚ Walter Alvarez of the University of California at Berkeley discovered deposits of iridium in sediments that dated back from the Cretaceous period‚ which was when the mass extinction occurred. "Iridium is rare on earth‚ but is concentrated in meteors and comets" ("mass extinction").This led to proposal of the asteroid theory since the discovery of the iridium sediments proves that an asteroid had hit earth. Then in 1991‚ the Chicxulub crater was found on the Yucatan peninsula
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