Resumen de Fracking hell
A new theory about fracking suggests that natural fracking on a truly epic scale caused the Great Dying. Not only that it could be the missing ingredient to explain exactly why the dinosaurs were so quickly snuffed out at the end of the Cretaceous. Rock sequences of the right age all over the world carry anomalously high concentrations of iridium, a metal rare at Earth's surface but common in asteroids. These same rock sequences often carry unusual quartz crystals that seem to have experienced an extreme physical shock. It all squares with the idea that an extraterrestrial rock hit Earth, sending shock waves through its surface and spraying debris into the atmosphere. This debris created an "impact winter", blocking out sunlight for years and starving plants of the energy they needed to grow--and animals of the plants they needed to eat. Here, Barras examines whether people have been missing a crucial ingredient in explaining the mass extinctions that have regularly devastated life on Earth.
