Synopsis is there. For the full article you have to get the magazine. The magazine is really interesting and a great source of astronomical information, in case anyone wants to get it.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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The thread title is indeed funny. I must say I preferred the old theory, though, that humans wiped them out.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Yes, yes, but "Helping a giant meteor impact" just doesn't have the same visceral satisfaction as "Wiping out megafauna with nothing but stone spears". It doesn't feel the same when the species in question has had a bloody great rock heaved at it and you're just kicking it when it's down. Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I want to point out that a huge hazard to the world that I first discussed and urged action on 10 years ago is finally becoming a topic to which the government is paying attention. Next year the U.S. Government will publish a plan to deal with asteroid impacts.
So, finally this is being taken seriously, thank goodness. I just want to point out that I recognized this hazard and began pointing it out over 10 years ago.
I had to do this as an engineer several times, too, before I got my coworkers to begin listening to my ideas. As a female with a soft voice, I was often overlooked on the jobsite until I pointed out to my coworkers that I understood what was going on in several situations well before they did, and tried to tell them what I knew, and they didn't listen. Of course by the time the problem was resolved they had all forgotten what I said originally, hence the need to remind them. After this happened 3 or 6 or 10 times, they began to listen up front as well.
So this is not to say nyah nyah I told you so, though of course my heart isn't entirely free of any hints of that sort of feeling. =) This is just to document the situation so that we may recognize solutions to future problems more quickly.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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"Over the past 3 years, a loosely confederated group of researchers has argued that an asteroid or comet struck North America about 13,000 years ago, wiping out the woolly mammoth, the giant sloth, and other large animals. Experts say they have shot down most of the supposed evidence, but one finding remained: nano-scale diamond crystals that could have formed only under the extreme pressure of an impact. Now, a group of experts has dismissed this evidence as well, putting what many see as the final nail in the coffin of the mammoth-killer impact."
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I just attended a seminar discussing extreme volcanic explosions as the likely cause of the major extinction events in the Earth's history. There is more evidence for correlation (and this guy says causation) of extinction events and flood basalt formation than of extinctions and impacts.
He went through all of the evidence of high-pressure build up of carbon dioxide under certain crustal features, which then explode and create many of the features previously associated with impact events. Also, many of the "ground zeros" are near flood basalt, but the flood basalt layers extend far below the impact layer. Simply put: the impacts cannot be the cause of the flood basalts, and they are too often found together to be simple coincidence. Instead, it seems more likely that the flood basalt is a symptom of extreme high pressure which theoretically leads to huge explosions, leaking carbon dioxide, sulfur, and other toxic gases into the atmosphere.
Here's a link describing a little of what he gave in today's seminar.
Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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This issue of Sky and Telescope will hit the newsstands soon. I just wanted to point out the story to those who have an interest in this subject, and incidentally keep this thread alive. =)
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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All of the people on this thread taking this topic seriously are morons. On the off chance, that an asteroid large enough to do serious damage to the Earth came near in its orbit, at least one of the advanced nations on this planet would detect it in time. Our resources are better spent fighting actual threats like global warming and overpopulation than random juvenile delusions straight out of a bad Sci-Fi novel.
Posts: 87 | Registered: Dec 2011
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quote:Originally posted by ZachC: All of the people on this thread taking this topic seriously are morons. On the off chance, that an asteroid large enough to do serious damage to the Earth came near in its orbit, at least one of the advanced nations on this planet would detect it in time. Our resources are better spent fighting actual threats like global warming and overpopulation than random juvenile delusions straight out of a bad Sci-Fi novel.
I read that as "are mormons" at first and wondered why some people were being excluded.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Well it's true that only mormons have the wisdom and foresight to care about catastrophic asteroid impacts. The rest of us are too high on caffeine, nicotine, and premarital sex to notice.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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