One-two punch may have killed off dinosaurs

• Autores: Joshua Sokol
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3042, 2015, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • It was one thing after another for the dinosaurs. The famous asteroid that hastened their demise touched down in the middle of a period of climate change caused by intense volcanism. The resulting seismic shock may have then triggered even more eruptions, suggesting a one-two punch saw off Tyrannosaurus and co. Now there is evidence that the worst of lava flows happened after the impact. Paul Renne of Berkeley Geochronology Center in California and his team reached this conclusion by using argon isotopes to date Deccan rocks. "Suddenly the lava flows erupting in the Deccan traps are much thicker and much more widely distributed," Renne says. "Thousands of kilometers are affected."