Found convincing proof of the theory of “double blow”.
Scientists have found convincing proof of the theory of “double blow” that destroyed the dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous period — a series of large-scale volcanic eruptions, followed by the impact of a huge meteorite.
To determine the average temperature on the planet at the time each of these catastrophic events, paleontologists investigated the ratio of carbon and oxygen in the well-preserved fossil shells found on the island of Seymour (Antarctica). The shells belonged to survivors of disasters shellfish. The combination of two isotopes (oxygen-18 and carbon-13) in one molecule is a clear indicator of water temperature.
It turned out that in the era of asteroid ocean warmed by about 1.1 degrees. Volcanoes also raised the water temperature on average by 7.8 degrees — a huge figure. This is after the fall of the rate of extinction of marine species (from the same island of Seymour) has increased dramatically: 24 14 extinct because of volcanoes.
Sources of “double impact” are the volcanoes that created the Deccan traps (basalt rocks in Western India). The eruption threw into the atmosphere a lot of dangerous volatile compounds began 250 thousand years before the fall of chekalovskoe meteorite and lasted half a million years after it (in the end, poured out half a million cubic kilometers of lava). In 2015, scientists have suggested that under the influence of the meteorite changed the type of eruptions: from frequent to rare and small and large-scale.
