Giant asteroid hitting the Earth is the only explanation that can be accepted as a cause of extinction of the dinosaurs, says a team of global scientists, Thursday (4 / 3), hoping to resolve the row which has split the experts for decades.
A panel of 41 scientists from around the world studying for 20 years of research to confirm the cause of the extinction of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT), which creates "an environment like hell" about 65 million years ago and remove over half of all species on this planet.
Scientific opinion was split about whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps, which today is India - where a series of volcanic eruptions that lasted for 1.5 million years.
The new study by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science found that the asteroid 15 miles wide hit the earth in Chixulub - now Mexico - is the cause of KT extinction.
"We now have evidence that an asteroid large is the cause of the extinction of KT. It sparked a huge fire, an earthquake measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and the continent wide landslide, which created a tsunami," said Joanna Morgan from Imperial College London, co-author of the study.
Asteroid is thought to have hit the Earth with the power of one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Morgan said the "last nail in the coffin for the dinosaurs' explosive material was present when flying in the atmosphere, blanketing the planet in darkness, triggering a global winter and" kills many species can not adapt to similar environments this country ".
The scientists who worked on the study of palaeontology experts analyze the job, geokemistri, for example climate, geophysical and sedimentologi which has collected evidence about the KT extinction during the past 20 years.
The geological record shows that the events that triggered the extinction of dinosaurs rapidly destroying the land and marine ecosystems, they said, and blow the asteroid is "the only acceptable explanation for this".
Peter Schulte of the University of Erlangen in Germany, lead author of the study, said the fossil record clearly shows the mass extinction of about 65.5 million years ago - the period now known as the K-Pg boundary.
Deccan volcano theory is also thrown into doubt by the models of atmospheric chemistry, said the team, which showed the asteroid impact thought to have issued far more sulfur, dust and soot in a shorter time compared with the volcanic eruption, and resulted in the darkness and cold air extreme.
Gareth Collins, another author of Imperial College, said that an asteroid impact not only lead to "hell day" which marks the end of the glory of 160 million years of dinosaurs, but also a very big day for mammals.
"KT Extinction is an important period in the history of Earth, which eventually paved the way for humans to become the dominant species on Earth," he wrote in his comments about the study, as quoted by Reuters reporters, Kate Kelland.
A panel of 41 scientists from around the world studying for 20 years of research to confirm the cause of the extinction of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT), which creates "an environment like hell" about 65 million years ago and remove over half of all species on this planet.
Scientific opinion was split about whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps, which today is India - where a series of volcanic eruptions that lasted for 1.5 million years.
The new study by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science found that the asteroid 15 miles wide hit the earth in Chixulub - now Mexico - is the cause of KT extinction.
"We now have evidence that an asteroid large is the cause of the extinction of KT. It sparked a huge fire, an earthquake measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and the continent wide landslide, which created a tsunami," said Joanna Morgan from Imperial College London, co-author of the study.
Asteroid is thought to have hit the Earth with the power of one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Morgan said the "last nail in the coffin for the dinosaurs' explosive material was present when flying in the atmosphere, blanketing the planet in darkness, triggering a global winter and" kills many species can not adapt to similar environments this country ".
The scientists who worked on the study of palaeontology experts analyze the job, geokemistri, for example climate, geophysical and sedimentologi which has collected evidence about the KT extinction during the past 20 years.
The geological record shows that the events that triggered the extinction of dinosaurs rapidly destroying the land and marine ecosystems, they said, and blow the asteroid is "the only acceptable explanation for this".
Peter Schulte of the University of Erlangen in Germany, lead author of the study, said the fossil record clearly shows the mass extinction of about 65.5 million years ago - the period now known as the K-Pg boundary.
Deccan volcano theory is also thrown into doubt by the models of atmospheric chemistry, said the team, which showed the asteroid impact thought to have issued far more sulfur, dust and soot in a shorter time compared with the volcanic eruption, and resulted in the darkness and cold air extreme.
Gareth Collins, another author of Imperial College, said that an asteroid impact not only lead to "hell day" which marks the end of the glory of 160 million years of dinosaurs, but also a very big day for mammals.
"KT Extinction is an important period in the history of Earth, which eventually paved the way for humans to become the dominant species on Earth," he wrote in his comments about the study, as quoted by Reuters reporters, Kate Kelland.
