Dinosaur Killers

by Popoff, Alexander

  In 1980, Alvarez, his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, and chemists Frank Asaro and Helen Michels published in the article “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” the discovery of iridium in the boundary layer and their asteroid mass extinction theory. They have found that the concentration of iridium in the boundary clay is many times greater than normal—30 times in Italy and 160 times at Stevns, Denmark. Their hypothesis suggested that an asteroid hit the Earth, created a huge crater, and some of the material was ejected from the crater in the form of dust and reached the stratosphere, then it was spread around the globe, preventing the sunlight from reaching the surface for several years until it settled. The reduced light led to the destruction of the plant mass, and the food chains collapsed.

  There were other, earlier suggestions of an impact event, but no evidence had been uncovered at that time. In 1956, M. W. De Laubenfels from Oregon State College published in Journal of Paleontology the article “Dinosaur Extinction: One More Hypothesis,” which explored his idea that the mass extinction was caused by an extraterrestrial “extra large body.”

  What caused the boundary layer between the two eras?

  In the article “Chicxulub impact predates K–T boundary: New evidence from Brazos, Texas,” published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2007, Gerta Keller and a team claim that their research provides strong evidence that the Chicxulub impact predates the K-Pg boundary and the iridium anomaly by about 300,000 years, and this is consistent with their earlier observations.

  They suggested that there were two impacts. The first asteroid created the huge Chicxulub crater but caused no extinction of species. According to this theory, the iridium enrichment and the boundary layer worldwide were created by a second asteroid, whose crater is still unknown. The first asteroid created the Chicxulub crater, but it did nothing more than make a giant hole. After the impact all animals were still alive and kicking: there was no iridium, there was no boundary layer. The great extinction was still 300,000 years ahead.

  If there were two asteroid impacts, there should be two craters and two ejecta layers. Still, no research has yet found a second ejecta layer.

  Researchers reject Keller’s theory, arguing that the layer on top of the impact spherules should be attributed to tsunami activity resulting from bolide impact.

  There are also claims that recent well coring at the Chicxulub site indicates that the crater was caused by specific volcanic eruption.

  In the article “Time Scales of Critical Events Around the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary,” Science, 2013, Paul R. Renne et al. wrote, “Mass extinctions manifest in Earth’s geologic record were turning points in biotic evolution. We present 40Ar/39Ar data that establish synchrony between the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and associated mass extinctions with the Chicxulub bolide impact to within 32,000 years.”

  The authors reported that their preferred absolute age for the Cretaceous boundary is 66.043 million years.

  They said, “Thus, the hypothesis that the Chicxulub impact predated the KPB by ~300 ky is unsupported by our data.”

  KPB stands for Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.

  Paul R. Renne et al. wrote, “We suggest that the brief cold snaps in the latest Cretaceous, though not necessarily of extraordinary magnitude, were particularly stressful to a global ecosystem that was well adapted to the long-lived preceding Cretaceous hothouse climate.”

  This is a very important observation, reported also by many other researchers—there was a cooling of the climate just before the catastrophic events. We should find a link between “the brief cold snaps in the latest Cretaceous” and the culprit. Could an asteroid reduce world temperatures tens of thousands of years before the impact? No? What was it?

  Maybe the boundary layer could answer some questions.

  The boundary clay contains:

  1. High levels of platinum group metals, including iridium. These elements are normally very rare in terrestrial rocks, but they are much more common in meteorites, lunar rocks, etc. Iridium is extremely rare in the Earth’s crust because it traveled with iron as it sank into the core of our planet.

  2. Spherules or microtektites. These are microscopic glasslike spheres that form from violent explosive events like bolide impacts and nuclear explosions. They are formed as the target rock is melted in the impact, blasted into the air as a spray of droplets, and almost immediately hardened again.

  3. Carbon soot.

  4. Microdiamonds (nanodiamonds). They have been found in meteorite impact craters. Such impact events create shock zones of high pressure and temperature suitable for diamond formation from carbon. The shock pressures from the impact instantaneously transform graphite in the ground into diamonds. Impact-type microdiamonds are used as an indicator for impact craters.

  5. Shocked quartz. This is a form of quartz that has a microscopic structure that is different from normal quartz. Under intense pressure (but limited temperature), the crystalline structure of quartz is deformed. Shocked quartz occurs from violent bolide impacts and atomic test sites. A volcano would not generate the pressure required to form shocked quartz. Shocked quartz is found worldwide in the K-Pg boundary layer. This is further evidence that the transition between the Mesozoic and the Paleogene periods was caused by a powerful extraterrestrial impact.

  In their article “Analyses of shocked quartz at the global K-P boundary indicate an origin from a single, high-angle, oblique impact at Chicxulub,” 2006, J. Morgan, et al. wrote, “Our analyses show that the total number, maximum and average size of shocked quartz grains all decrease gradually with paleodistance from Chicxulub. We do not find particularly high abundances in Pacific sites relative to Atlantic and European sites, as has been previously reported, and the size-distribution around Chicxulub is relatively symmetric. Ejecta samples at any one site display features that are indicative of a wide range of shock pressures, but the mean degree of shock increases with paleodistance. These shock- and size-distributions are both consistent with the K–P layer having been formed by a single impact at Chicxulub.”

  Microtektites and shocked quartz distribution patterns suggest a single impact event at the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

  Some scientists suggested that the boundary layer, with higher levels of iridium, spherules, and shocked quartz worldwide, is the result of a massive explosive volcanic eruption, as evidenced by the Deccan Traps. The volcanic activity would have produced enormous amounts of ash and gases, altering global climate due to the greenhouse effect, and changed ocean chemistry.

  In the article “A search for iridium in the Deccan Traps and Inter-Traps” by R. Rocchia1, D. Boclet, V. Courtillot, and J. Jaeger published in Geophysical Research Letters, the authors wrote, “It has been suggested that flood basalts in the Deccan (India) might be associated with events at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB). A search for iridium in 47 samples from lava flows and inter-trap sediments in the Deccan yields negative results.”

  The Deccan basalt flows were not enough to produce the high iridium amounts in the K-Pg boundary layer. Volcanos can’t eject the necessary huge amounts of ejecta high into the stratosphere in order for the fallout to be deposited globally.

  If the K-Pg boundary layer was created by the Deccan volcano eruption, the tektites and the shocked quartz should decrease gradually with paleodistance from the Deccan Traps; instead, the distribution pattern shows that the impact site was Chicxulub, almost on the opposite side of the planet.

  There are also other objections to the idea that volcanic activity caused the boundary layer worldwide.

  In 2002, Philippe Claeys, Wolfgang Kiessling, and Walter Alvarez reported in their article “Distribution of Chicxulub ejecta at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary” that iridium is spread homogeneously throughout the globe, and there is no correlation between iridium concentration and distance from the impact site.

  Asteroid impact theory cannot explain the phenomena with the homogeneous
distribution of iridium worldwide, and the authors suggested that “Meteorite-rich dust and vapor from the impacting bolide and target rock were transported to the upper atmosphere by the fireball rising from the crater. It thus appears that, after the impact, the Earth was engulfed in a homogeneous cloud of vapor and dust particles.”

  Earth engulfed in a cloud of homogeneous dust and iridium particles?

  The iridium distribution pattern should follow the distribution pattern of the ejecta, but it doesn’t, and the authors of the article were forced to come up with a homogeneous cloud of vapor and dust particles that engulfed the entire planet.

  It is more logical to expect that this homogeneous distribution was caused by the dust cloud surrounding a comet. Itcan deliver huge amounts of cometary matter into Earth’s stratosphere and create a homogenous layer of extraterrestrial debris.

  The K-Pg boundary layer consists of two big groups of material: terrestrial and extraterrestrial. The fallout consists of the direct influx of material from space and from ejecta. The material that is spread homogeneously and globally is from the direct influx from space. Cometary dust delivered iridium, amino acids, and other substances.

  Only a very small part of the ejecta can stay a long enough time in the stratosphere in order to cause fallout that follows a (near) homogeneous distribution pattern.

  There is always a correlation between concentration of the ejecta and distance from the impact site.

  Ni-rich spinels have been found throughout the world at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. These minerals have no counterparts in terrestrial rocks. Ni-rich spinel is a mineral formed by fusion and oxidation in the atmosphere of meteoritic material. It has been found throughout the globe in the K-Pg boundary clay, supporting the view that a cosmic catastrophic event did occur at the end of the Cretaceous, not a volcanic eruption.

  Eric Robin and Robert Rocchia claim in their article “Ni-rich spinel at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary of El Kef, Tunisia” that chemical analyses of spinel from El Kef reveal that it differs from spinel from other sites, even close to El Kef, suggesting the accretion of several space objects. The authors think that this result can be explained by the fragmentation of the bolide, either before the impact (a comet break-up) or upon the impact, with, in both cases, dispersion of the debris all over the Earth. According to this research, the K-Pg layer was caused by an extraterrestrial impact, most probably a fragmenting comet.

  In the boundary layer significant quantities of elemental carbon and soot have been found worldwide.

  Researchers supposed that the likely source of the global soot deposit were extensive global wildfires of the terrestrial vegetation and fossil fuels ignited by the fiery entry of the impactor into the atmosphere and the reentering ejecta from the impact.

  Wolbach et al., in their article “Cretaceous Extinctions: Evidence for Wildfires and Search for Meteoritic Material,” published in Science in 1985 and some later publications, reported that the soot enrichment in the K-Pg boundary is isotopically uniform, suggesting a single source, and that it has an isotopic signature consistent with the burning of vegetation. However, they noted that some of the soot could also be sourced from combustion of hydrocarbons. The majority of hydrocarbons found on Earth naturally occur in crude oil.

  Claire M. Belcher et al. have revealed that extensive wildfires were unlikely and that the soot reveals a signature consistent with hydrocarbon combustion, not with burning living plant biomass.

  Other researchers also claim that the quantity of remnants of burnt vegetation (charred remains) are not enough to support the idea of massive, prolonged wildfires. Of coarse, the charcoal present in the boundary layer supposes wildfires, but they were limited in time and territory. Then what burned and caused the large amount of soot in the boundary layer? What sort of burning hydrocarbons created the soot layer? Crude oil, coal, or something else?

  Hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. They can be gases (e.g., methane and propane), liquids (e.g., hexane and benzene), waxes or low melting solids (e.g., paraffin wax and naphthalene) or polymers (e.g., polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene). Hydrocarbons are a primary energy source for our civilization.

  Belcher et al. wrote in their article “Geochemical evidence for combustion of hydrocarbons during the K-T impact event” that their data “…do not support the suggestion of global wildfires and in fact provide compelling evidence that a significant volume of hydrocarbons were combusted during the K-T impact event. An old saying goes that ‘there’s no smoke without fire,’ but in the case of the K-T event the geological record suggests that there was most likely smoke without fire.”

  In the article “Combustion of fossil organic matter at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-P) boundary,” M. Harvey, S. Brassell, C. Belcher, and A. Montanari suggested that the combustion of Cantrell oil reservoir in Mexico resulted in global greenhouse warming that caused the mass extinction.

  Belcher also wrote that recent Chicxulub drills reveal that the target rock contains hydrocarbons, the vaporization of which could produce the soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found at the K-Pg boundary layer.

  But there is one more likely source for the elemental carbon and soot from burning hydrocarbons in the boundary layer—a comet.

  Elemental carbon (also known as black carbon) is emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels as small, sooty particles, often with other chemicals attached to their surface. Sources of organic carbon include traffic, industrial combustion, and the degradation of carbon-containing materials.

  Comets also contain elemental carbon.

  Heating of the comet when entering the atmosphere may transform the cometary organic materials into elemental carbon.

  Data acquired during appearance of comet Halley show a significant amount of elemental carbon and carbonaceous material in the nucleus and coma. The nucleus is darker even than coal, suggesting carbonaceous material in the form of graphitic or amorphous carbon.

  Cometary core and dust contain elemental carbon grains. Comets are black (black as soot), thanks to the abundance of carbon compounds.

  The concentration of soot at Woodside Creek, New Zealand, varies with depth in a very similar way to that of iridium. What is the connection between the soot and iridium distribution pattern? They were both dusted from space from a single space body.

  Soot is impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons.

  Comets contain large amounts of frozen liquids, gases, and organics, which burn like giant fuel bombs while entering Earth’s atmosphere, leaving behind huge quantities of extraterrestrial soot. Frozen gases and liquids like ammonia, methane, ethane, acetylene, methyl alcohol, better known as wood alcohol, and many other chemicals have been seen in varying abundance in comets.

  There are significant amounts of frozen hydrocarbons in comets. Comet Hyakutake, the brightest comet in 20 years, had a big surprise: 50 million tons of frozen ethane, a hydrocarbon common in crude oil. This huge amount of ethane is onlyabout 1 percent of its total mass. Chemical analysis showed that the abundances of ethane and methane in the comet were roughly equal. Comet Hyakutake could deliver no less than 100 million tons of burning and detonating hydrocarbons if it entered Earth’s atmosphere.

  Researchers also discovered fullerenes in the boundary layer.

  Fullerenes are a third form of pure carbon besides diamond and graphite. Their molecules are composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, tube, and many other shapes. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and they resemble soccer balls. The name was an homage to Buckminster Fuller, architect, futurist, inventor, and book author, whose geodesic domes it resembles.

  Were the fullerenes generated in the intense heat of a bolide entering the atmosphere and by the impact pressure, or were they delivered on Earth by the impactor and survived the tremendous blast? Or were they somehow safely dusted onto the surface of our planet? />
  Endohedral fullerenes, also called endofullerenes, are fullerenes that have additional atoms, ions, or clusters enclosed within their inner spheres.

  In 1993, Martin Saunders and Robert Poreda demonstrated that fullerenes have the ability to capture noble gases (helium, neon, and argon) within their caged structures.

  The isotopic compositions of noble gases in meteorites and cosmic dust are clearly distinct from those found on Earth.

  Terrestrial helium is mostly helium-4; it contains only a small amount of helium-3. Extraterrestrial helium is mostly helium-3.

  The research of the noble gases in the fullerenes from boundary clay samples confirmed that they are of extraterrestrial origin.

  No Cantrell gas, crude oil, or coals were burnt at the end of the Cretaceous. Most of the soot and carbon was delivered by a burning comet and cometary dust. In the boundary clay there is also some amount of soot from wildfires. Volcanic eruptions can’t deliver extraterrestrial fullerenes in the boundary layer. Asteroids don’t contain the necessary large amounts of hydrocarbons and elemental carbon.

  Fullerenes, unlike iridium, have not been found atmany K-Pg boundary sites. But themixture of (complex) hydrocarbons has been found globally.

  In the article “There are no fullerenes in the K-T boundary layer,” 2000, Robert Taylor and A. Abdul-Sada claim that careful reexamination of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer material, which was reported earlier to contain fullerenes, confirms that there is merely a mixture of hydrocarbons and that these findings are entirely consistent with the known high oxidative instability of fullerenes.

  Now we have the answer from the K-Pg boundary layer as to what caused it to form. It was an impact. The impactor was a comet. The boundary layer could not have been formed by a volcano or an asteroid.

  But there is even more evidence that the impactor was a comet.

  K-PG BOUNDARY ZONE

  In 1980, Science published a dinosaurs-killed-by-a-giant-asteroid theory by Luis Alvarez. Critics asked how creatures outside the impact area were killed. Alvarez replied: