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Luis Walter Alvarez, left, and his son Walter, right, at the K–T Boundary in Gubbio, Italy, 1981. The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth.
It is now widely accepted that the devastation and climate disruption resulting from the impact was the primary cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction of 75% of plant and animal species on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, [a] also known as the K–T extinction, [b] was the mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth [2] [3] approximately 66.4 million years ago.
Artist's rendering of the Chicxulub asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere 66 million years ago, triggering events that caused a mass extermination. Roger Harris/Science Photo library via Getty ...
Its diameter was approximately 23-36 miles (37-58 km), Drabon said, making it about 50-200 times the mass of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, aside from their bird descendants.
The meteorite, S2, was first discovered in 2014. It hit the planet about 3.26 billion years ago and is estimated to have been up to 200 times larger than the space rock that later killed the ...
Along with massive amount of volcanic activity at the time, the meteor impact that created the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary is accepted as the main cause for this mass extinction event. Of the large marine reptiles, only sea turtles are left, and, of the dinosaurs, only the small feathered theropods survived in the form of birds. The end of ...
Meteorites might look like boring bits of rock – but each one has a fascinating story.