Study: Dinosaurs Died Within Hours After Asteroid Hit

University of Colorado News Center ^ | May 24, 2004

[freebilly]

Scientists have speculated for more than a decade that the entire surface of the Earth below would have been baked by the equivalent of a global oven set on broil.

Sure, and the animals that burrowed underground or sheltered in water survived how? By eating what?

[harbinger of doom]

It's all true...it's science. I read it in a book.

(I, too, observed this same thing 65 million yrs ago)

[LibWhacker]

Burnt and rotting plant and animal matter, each other, etc. They survived it so obviously there was some food for them.

[the_Watchman]

It looks like VELIKOVSKY's "Worlds In Collision" is being revisited!

[LibWhacker]

There are two kinds of college students: science students and liberal arts imbeciles who can't make the grade.

[swilhelm73]

And wouldn't that have killed every land plant?

[LibWhacker]

No, we don't need Velikovsky to see there are comets and asteroids out there.

[LibWhacker]

You'd think so, but not necessarily.

[Aracelis]

The "heat pulse" caused by re-entering ejected matter would have reached around the globe, igniting fires and burning up all terrestrial organisms not sheltered in burrows or in water, he said.

Hmmmmm...I wanna see their model for this.

RA, you'd have a better grasp of the physics behind this...what do you think? Locally, yes, I can accept this hypothesis, but globally? Musta been one h*lluva bolide, and I'm not convinced that smaller biota would have survived even in well-protected niches...availability of free atmospheric oxygen being a major factor.

Permian, maybe...K/T? Call me very skeptical.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

Perhaps deep roots survived, and I'm sure seeds did. And, other animals were carrying around seeds. Those would produce new, adapted plants and underground plant matter and insects would provide food and water.

[Ichneumon]

It looks like VELIKOVSKY's "Worlds In Collision" is being revisited!

Velikovsky was a dolt.

[Free Trapper]

Must have been a lot of rain after that much evaporation.

[Ichneumon]

And wouldn't that have killed every land plant?

Probably, but not all their seeds.

I'd also think that creatures and plants nearer the poles would have had an advantage.

If I recall correctly, species that were exclusively shallow-water-dwelling had a hard time pulling through as well.

[Positive]

Wow this is a scary theory.

Earth may be a small target, but it has been traveling in a repetitive pattern for billions of years; in the field of trajectory of billions of astronomical projectiles...what are the odds of a hit?

[Positive]

"Must have been a lot of rain after that much evaporation."

Yes, and the mineral content of the astroid may have been very beneficial to plant growth and animal development.

[LibWhacker]

A big hit like that one? I've heard something like once every 100 million years or so.

[Free Trapper]

That's the way I was thinking.

Fast destruction and everything set for a quick rebirth?of life.

[Positive]

Trust me, I'm no Art Bell...but asteroids come in many shapes and sizes and material content, do they not.

If they do...it must be one heck of a mathematical computation to figure out the probablity...then of course there's the differences of consequences of a direct hit, a negative rotation hit or a positive rotation hit...is it in the Northern Hemisphere during which season or the Southern?

I bought a Lotto ticket today...odds 41,600,000 to one...hundreds of people have "beat the odds."

[Aracelis]

The problem involves quite a number of factors, not the least of which would be rapid and efficient carbon sequestration. Rain would accelerate the process, but where's the sink? We have found a fine clay lamina in various places globally the defines the K/T, but I do not recall that this was being investigated for carbon.