Open AccessGlobal fires after asteroid impact probably caused mass extinction
Author(s) -
Balcerak Ernie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1002/2013eo200011
Subject(s) - extinction event , asteroid , extinction (optical mineralogy) , paleogene , geology , cretaceous , paleontology , impact crater , astrobiology , earth science , physics , demography , biological dispersal , population , sociology
About 66 million years ago, a mountain‐sized asteroid hit what is now the Yucatan in Mexico at exactly the time of the Cretaceous‐Paleogene (K‐Pg) mass extinction. Evidence for the asteroid impact comes from sediments in the K‐Pg boundary layer, but the details of the event, including what precisely caused the mass extinction, are still being debated.