KT Extinction Theory (Asteroid)
- 1. K.T EXTINCTION THEORIES By Dipshay
- 2. Dinosaurs were reptiles that varied in size and shape. All dinosaurs had four legs and could not swim nor fly. They were as big as the 30m Argentinosaurus or as small as the 1m Compsognathus. Dinosaurs appeared 231 mya during the Jurassic period and died at the end of the Cretaceous period (66 mya). This extinction was called the K.T (Cretaceous Tertiary) extinction. *mya=million years ago
- 3. THE DINOSAURS HAD THRIVED FOR 135 MILLION YEARS, BUT WHAT LIVES MUST ALSO DIE... GLOBAL WIPEOUT
- 4. *A theory is and idea meant to explain a certain situation based on general rules or principles. Volcanism • Mammal competition • Asteroid impact • Continental drift •
- 5. An extraterrestrial object (asteroid) 10km across slammed into the Yucatan peninsula creating the Chicxulub crater 65 million years ago. Subsequently, forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought and climate change ravaged the planet. Marking the end of the dinosaurs
- 7. ........
- 9. 100 million years before the collision a major event occurred. In the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, 320 million km away, an asteroid 65 km across travelled another one at 35,000 km an hour. It got pulverized into ‘tiny’ fragments. But one fragment -10 km across - had a special destiny...to wipe the dinosaurs off the face of the earth.
- 10. The asteroid consisted mainly of water and rock. The water, in the cold vacuum of space, froze into permafrost. Anything that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere heats up and burns. Pieces of the asteroid broke off and appeared as a meteor shower Many scientists believe that the water and other chemicals in asteroids was what gave life to Earth. But what gives life can also take it away...
- 11. Just seconds away from impact there are some key factors that scientists had to blame for the extinction. Force is how much energy is released during something. The mass of the asteroid times the speed (70,000 km when entering the atmosphere) equals massive destruction. The force of the impact would be 100 million megatons. That’s more powerful than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
- 13. Seconds after the asteroid hit, a sonic wave was released in a perfect circle. This wave killed any dinosaurs close to the impact site and moved boulders! A massive dust cloud was released during the impact and settled in the upper atmosphere. This blocked out the sun’s rays and first heated the planet, then plunged it into a nuclear winter. Many events occurred after this (which will be explained in further detail).
- 15. When the asteroid had hit, 1% of its force (enough to shake the planet) had been absorbed by the earth. This travelled around the planet causing massive earthquakes. This caused the landscape to move and created cracks in the ground (in which water filled) splitting some dinosaurs from the rest. This led to breeding problems and soon some species died off.
- 17. We all know what follows an earthquake; a tsunami. These weren’t 2 metre waves: they were several hundred metres tall and were as thick as a house.
- 19. Due to the dust cloud blocking the heat in, the air heated up which caused trees to go ablaze. This led to massive fires killing everything it touched.
- 21. It’s hard to imagined what could’ve survived this disaster but things did survive. Many mammals survived by eating insects and aquatic plants which were in abundance before, during and after the meteor hit. They then massively multiplied and literally spread everywhere in the world.
- 23. You may still be wondering about what evidence scientists have to prove the extinction theory. The evidence is in the crater. Scientists believe that the Chicxulub crater was the leftovers of the asteroid. In the borders of the crater, a rare metal had been found; iridium. It is similar to platinum but is extremely rare on earth...but is found in nearly every asteroid.
- 26. An asteroid 10 km wide smashed into earth covering the atmosphere of the planet with thick dust which blocked sunlight in. This caused forest fires and the initial impact caused earthquakes followed by tsunamis. Some smaller species survived and evolved into more complex things.
- 27. The team who found evidence of the theory and created it consisted of: Luis Alvarez, his son geologist Walter Alvarez, and chemists Frank Asaroand and Helen Michel