Volcanoes May Have Caused Mass Extinctions?

Hugh Pickens writes "According to recent research, huge amounts of sulphur dioxide released by volcanic eruptions may have had more to do with wiping out dinosaurs than the meteorite strike at Chicxulub on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Marine sediments drilled from the Chicxulub crater have revealed that that the mass extinctions occurred 300,000 years after Chicxulub hit Earth. The Deccan volcanism was a long cumulative process that released vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. '"On land it must have been 7-8 degrees warmer," says Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller. "The Chicxulub impact alone could not have caused the mass extinction, because this impact predates the mass extinction."' Keller also postulates a second larger and still unidentified meteor strike after Chicxulub, that left the famous extraterrestrial layer of iridium found in rocks worldwide and pushed earth's ecosystem over the brink. But where's the crater? "I wish I knew," says Keller."

where's the crater?

[Anonymous Coward]

But where's the crater? "I wish I knew

Its gotta be in Oklahoma. Trust me, that place is a **** hole!

Xenu

[jas_public]

This sounds like an L. Ron Hubbard story.

is it warm in here?

[User 956]

The Deccan volcanism was a long cumulative process that released vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Yeah, but with our advanced technology, we can cut that time in half.

Easy

[rucs_hack]

It shouldn't be that hard to work it out, after all, wasn't it only about ten thousand years ago it happened? /ducks :)

Ridiculous...

[gentlemen_loser]

Everyone knows that the earth is only 6000 years old, as evidenced here [creationmuseum.org] They even have models of Eve with vegetarian Raptors. See. [arstechnica.com] I do not understand why anyone pays any attention to these activist scientists. Duh...

Oblig futurama

[Joe the Lesser]

Fry: What killed off the dinosaurs?

Giant Super Brain: Me!

Re:Cause

[rucs_hack]

There is a theory that this is what happened. The Siberian Traps were already going, they were a long term thing, but they had an upsurge of activity that was seriously bad for the environment at around the time the Asteroid hit, or so I recall, it was a while ago I learned this. Wait a bit and I'm sure a slashdotr technorati will provide the ref :)

DO NOT ask that question on slashdot

[spun]

I think we've all seen the crater by this point.

Re:Ridiculous...

[Anonymous Coward]

well, to tell the true they got all my attention when they said Chicx u lub...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Xenu

[FusionDragon2099]

No, but Tyrannosaurs fly F-14s.

Re:Ridiculous...

[Digital Vomit]

Ha ha ha! Oh gosh that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. "Everyone knows that the earth is only 6000 years old". You know, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference that on Slashdot before. Because that's what the religious people say in church right? Isn't it? "The earth is only 6000 years old". And, and yet you've taken that and used it out of context to insult people who are different than you in this everyday situation. God what a clever, smart person you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any Titanic jokes you want to throw out there as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity?

God you're so funny!

(Apologies to Seth MacFarlane)

Re:Ridiculous...

[lgw]

Wait, wait, let me get this right. The "6000 years" thing is so obviously stupid that no one should accuse Christians of believing it, but the part where Christians believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in all humans because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree and thereby pissing off an invisible wizard who lives in the sky -- that part -- is not obviously stupid at all, but obviously true?

For simplicty, please list which fairy tales you do and don't believe in, so we can insult your *actual* beliefs?