0
Scientists said recently that it appears dinosaurs weren’t wiped out by an asteroid after all. They say instead that new research leads them to believe volcanoes caused the extinction of the great beasts.
For the last 30 years, it was thought a giant meteorite that was about six miles wide, struck Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and that the resulting nuclear storms and sever weather disruption were to blame for causing the dinosaurs to die out, but now it scientists are claiming that volcano eruptions in India about 65 million years ago are probably responsible.
Professor Gerta Keller says that evidence such as fossilized traces of plants and animals that were found in northeastern Mexico, shows the meteorite hit earth 300,000 years after the dinosaurs had already vanished and the meteorite didn’t appear to harm any plant and animal life.
Keller, a geologist at Princeton University, in New Jersey, said volcanic eruptions on India's Deccan plateau shot large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the air. She thinks the volcano eruptions might have blocked the sunlight, changed the climate and resulted in acid rain.
However, Keller, who has spent 20 years on her research, thinks the dinosaur debate will still go on and there will never be total agreement on the cause of their demise.
So far the theories include asteroids, volcanoes, global climate change, rising sea levels and supernova explosions. But all we really know for sure is that about 65 million years ago, something happened on earth that caused mass extinctions on the land and in the water.
I wonder if hundreds of years from now, what is left of the human race will wonder what made all of the animals die out during our time? I wonder if neglect and apathy, population and greed will figure on their list, or if they will be gracious enough to believe that it was a 'natural catastrophe'?
Printer-friendly version