Palaeontology

Did volcanoes kill the dinosaurs ?

By T.K. Randall
December 10, 2012 ·  21 comments

Image Credit: Gerta Keller, NSF What caused the dinosaurs to go extinct 65 million years ago remains one of the most debated topics in science. The most commonly accepted explanation is that a large asteroid hit the Earth around that time, but not everyone subscribes to this idea. New research in to the events that lead to the dinosaurs' demise has suggested that volcanoes may have been to blame, spewing high levels of poisonous gases in to the atmosphere and turning the sea in to an acidic soup.

The activity would have been centered around the Deccan Traps, a region of intense volcanism located in what is now modern day India. "Our new information calls for a reassessment of what really caused the K-T mass extinction," said study author Gerta Keller. At the very least it is believed that volcanic activity would have been a contributing factor in the dinosaurs' destruction.[!gad]What caused the dinosaurs to go extinct 65 million years ago remains one of the most debated topics in science. The most commonly accepted explanation is that a large asteroid hit the Earth around that time, but not everyone subscribes to this idea. New research in to the events that lead to the dinosaurs' demise has suggested that volcanoes may have been to blame, spewing high levels of poisonous gases in to the atmosphere and turning the sea in to an acidic soup.

The activity would have been centered around the Deccan Traps, a region of intense volcanism located in what is now modern day India. "Our new information calls for a reassessment of what really caused the K-T mass extinction," said study author Gerta Keller. At the very least it is believed that volcanic activity would have been a contributing factor in the dinosaurs' destruction.

Source: Live Science | Comments (21)

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