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Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology / Re: K-PG Extinction Questions
« on: 13/11/2016 23:25:11 »
Going to bump this since I got no replies, to see if there is any interest in the topic..This past summer drilling was done into the Chixculub Crater for samples to determine how life evolved right afterwards. I still think it was a comet impact rather than an asteroid, maybe one day we will be able to tell one way or the other. Obviously it was a very high energy impact, travelling at a very shallow energy which combined with the angle and the location hit, sent vast blast waves laterally impacting life to the extreme, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. Of course, we can't know how long before the last dinosaur died out after impact, 10 years, 50 years, or 100 years, or maybe a few thousand years later. Hopefully we will someday find more dinosaur remains right at the boundary or maybe even in the impact boundary deposits themselves. I heard of an Ornothimimid bone being found in a tsunami deposit somewhere in Texas, but not sure if that's confirmed or not..
I wonder if the impactor was a comet that broke up such as Shoemaker-Levy 9, looks like there would be a way to discern if it was a comet or asteroid. I'm still thinking it was a comet. It's such a happenstance event, but yet it led the way for our evolution so is highly significant.
I wonder if the impactor was a comet that broke up such as Shoemaker-Levy 9, looks like there would be a way to discern if it was a comet or asteroid. I'm still thinking it was a comet. It's such a happenstance event, but yet it led the way for our evolution so is highly significant.