Re: "Forensic" Evidence Of Dinosaur Killer

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

Toby White wrote:

> There seems to be a substantial hole in your reasoning.  That hole is
> approximately 300 km in diameter and is located in the Yucatan.

True.  On the other hand, that doesn't change the fact that there's also
a vast, gaping hole in the impact theory as currently formulated.

> We know very little about key parameters: the composition of the impacter
> (rocky asteroid?, "dirty snowball" comet?), and the speed and angle of
> impact, to name two.  Thus, its not really possible to determine what the
> energy budget was.  However, we are here, which suggests an upper limit to
> the ejecta effect.  The large hole in the ground, anomalous iridium, shocked
> quartz, etc. (as well as common sense) set a lower limit.

The problem is that in every version of the impact theory I've ever
seen, the upper limit and lower limit cross.  A ten-mile-diameter
planetoid is simply too large to have produced _only_ the effects that
we see in the fossil record.  It should have done much, much more.  

-- JSW