Asteroid Theory

There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the asteroid theory. By that I mean the theory that an asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and up to 70% of all other life on Earth around 65 million years ago. The theory is refuted by bible believers as well as scientists who claim one single event could not have done that much damage to Earths eco-system in short enough time to have killed such a huge percentage of flora and fauna.

No one denies that the asteroid theory has its place in science. The theory revolves around the crater at Chicxulub. The Chicxulub Crater is 180-280 km wide. The asteroid that created it would have been the size city and would have hit with an impact 10 million times as strong as the atomic bombs that were dropped during WWII. The ash that was thrown into the air would have cloaked the sun for several months. With the death of the vegetation, the large herbivores would have perished, then the large meat eaters, and so on down the food chain. All of that would have happened after the deaths of the millions of animals that would have perished within the 200 mile blast radius.

To add fuel to the fire of controversy surrounding the asteroid theory, the National Geographic News has reported on a study that shows the Chicxulub Crater is about 300,000 years too old to have killed the dinosaurs. The study by Professor Gerta Keller of Princeton University, attributes the death of the dinosaurs to another as yet unknown asteroid impact event. This study does not deny the fact that the dinosaurs died as the result of an asteroid impact, but believes that Chicxulub is not that impact event.

It is very possible that the asteroid theory will be revised to add the possibility that it took more than one impact event to kill off so many species. It makes you wonder what the animals of this planet would have looked like if the asteroid had never hit the Earth. Would there have been a species that would have evolved to rival humans? Or one strong enough to eliminate the human race? Evolution could have taken many different turns without this event.

Here is a link to the study in the National Geographic News. Also, here is an article on the chance that asteroids and volcanoes combined to kill the dinosaurs off.

Reference:
NASA

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