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The Chicxulub impact event is credited with causing the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs around 66 million years ago. Now, a study in Nature suggests that dinosaurs could have survived if the asteroid had landed in an ocean or almost any bit of land that wasn't loaded with hydrocarbons:
[...] the extraterrestrial impact happened nearly anywhere else, like in the ocean or in the middle of most continents, some scientists now say it is possible dinosaurs could have survived annihilation. Only 13 percent of the Earth's surface harbored the ingredients necessary to turn the cosmic collision into this specific mass extinction event, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14199-x] [DX]. "I think dinosaurs could still be alive today," if the asteroid had landed elsewhere, Kunio Kaiho, a paleontologist from Tohoku University in Japan and lead author on the study, said in an email.
Other researchers questioned their findings.
When the asteroid, which had a diameter about half the length of Manhattan, struck the coast of Mexico, it found a rich source of sulfur and hydrocarbons, or organic deposits like fossil fuels, according to the researchers. Scorching hot temperatures at the impact crater would have ignited the fuel. The combustion would have spewed soot and sulfur into the stratosphere in sufficient quantities to blot out the sun and change the climate, setting into motion the collapse of entire ecosystems and the extinction of three-quarters of all species on Earth.
[...] Eighty-seven percent of Earth's surface, places like most of present day India, China, the Amazon and Africa, would not have had high enough concentrations of hydrocarbons to seal the dinosaurs' fate. But if the asteroid had hit marine coastal areas thriving with algae, which would have included present day Siberia, the Middle East and the eastern coast of North America, the bang would have been about as devastating to the dinosaurs and life on Earth as the Chicxulub impact.
Humans should burn off all of the hydrocarbons and tar sands in the Earth's crust, so we can make our species more resistant to impactors.
Also at DW, The Atlantic, and Live Science.
Related: Asteroid Impact That Killed Off the Dinosaurs Quantified
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday November 10 2017, @03:14PM (6 children)
How the fark long is Manhattan? I have no idea. I grok yards, meters, miles, kilometers, and football fields. Queen Marys, basketball courts, Manhattans? Not so much.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday November 10 2017, @03:18PM
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 10 2017, @04:36PM (1 child)
It's about 30 minutes, unless you're on the B train going uptown. Then you're gonna get stuck at the curve coming into Columbus Circle and it could take up to 50 minutes while waiting for the A train to pass. That's by subway.
By bike it's about 20 minutes, unless you're going downtown and get held up by dog walkers with 15 mutts on a leash or roller-bladers slaloming across the entire pedestrian and bike paths, or, if you're headed uptown between 10-12 am close to Tribeca when all the model chickies wake up to take their morning jog and you...find...you...don't...want...to...go...fast.
By car it's 5-7 minutes on the FDR if it's 3am and your wife has gone into labor.
You're welcome.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:03AM
Moderated Interesting, because Awesome wasn't an option. Someone gets it.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 10 2017, @05:52PM (2 children)
One Manhattan is a quarter of a Long Island, m which places it at about 2 Chardonnays.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 10 2017, @06:14PM (1 child)
So, converting to other units here, about 20 KiloJews?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday November 10 2017, @06:27PM
But 20 kiloJews is two Deutsche Bahn trains (it would be only one Indian Railways train), which would only realistically be a threat to Argentinian Dinosaurs.