Re: Deccan Traps Vs. Asteroid

[tholtz <tholtz@geology.umd.edu>]

There is basically no evidence for a Shiva Crater. It is a pet theory 
utterly unaccepted by the geophysical and geological community at large.

New evidence shows the Deccan Traps erupting somewhat earlier than you 
mentioned, and indeed there is a signature of it in the upper Hell 
Creek.

The initial article listed is yet another of Gerta Keller's team's 
yearly contribution to "Deccan did it." That team publishes something 
every year at AGU and GSA, and have since 1980. The fact that the rest 
of the paleontological and geological community are unconvinced by their 
data should say something.

The weight of the evidence is that the Chicxulub crater really is the 
key contributor. The Deccan Traps *might* have produced a lesser 
version, in an alternate universe where the Chicxulub impactor missed 
the Earth. But in the real timeline, the impactor seems to be the 
primary causal agent.

On 2015-07-11 12:03, john-schneiderman@cox.net wrote:
> The Deccan traps started around 66.25 mya, erupting in a series of
> episodes that lasted for probably 30,000 years.
> The K-Pg extinction event is connected with the Chicxulub Impact event
>  66.236 ± 0.06 mya
> Multiple impact theory includes the Shiva Crater about 66 mya may be
> connected/or caused the Deccan Traps.
> Then there is the draining of the intercontinental seas and rising
> oreganies and altered climatic patterns.
>
> My stand is that the life on this planet was doomed from all sides
> around about 67-64 mya.
>
>
> ---- MICHAEL MURPHY <4mjmu@rogers.com> wrote:
> > Some  climate science people I know  are interested in this article 
> > :http://www.skepticalscience.com/So-what-did-in-the-dinosaurs.html pumping 
> > the Deccan Traps as the cause of the KT extinction.  Is there a 
> > consensus within the paleo community on this?  I thought the general 
> > view was Traps might have contributed but impact was coup de grâce. 
> >  Has it changed lately?
> > MJ MurphyBCL

--
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Geology Office: Geology 4106
Scholars Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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