Volcanos Probably Contributed To Dinosaur Extinction
Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 13:50
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Deccan Traps Mark Richards, UC Berkeley Dark layers of cooled lava are seen in this image from India. A study published in Science today finds new evidence that a meteorite impact wasn't the only thing that killed the dinosaurs. Millions of years ago, a vast amount of lava erupted onto what is now India, spewing 12,275 cubic miles of lava onto the Earth's surface over the course of about 500,000 years. New analysis of this ancient volcanic eruption (whose remains are now known as the Deccan Traps) shows that the eruption really accelerated within 50,000 years of the Chicxulub impact--a vast amount of time to humans, but a geological blink of an eye. There has been a lot of work on the Deccan Traps in the geological...