basalt flows and extinctions

[bivalve@email.unc.edu (David Campbell)]

I don't think the India-Yucatan antipodal position is entirely agreed on-I
remember reading some article suggesting that the antipode is now subducted
under the Himalayas.  Another article (in Geological Magazine, I think)
examined the timing and local effects of the Deccan flood basalts and found
that they began well before the K/T and did not seem to affect local faunas
very much-dinosaurs were still present in inter-basalt beds but not at the
top.  This suggests that much of the Deccan basalts had little to do with
boundary extinctions, though a dramatic, catastrophic final burp (with a
pat on the back from a bolide) might not be ruled out.

David Campbell   "old seashells"
Department of Geology
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315
bivalve@email.unc.edu