Did the Crater Impact in Mexico Cause the Extinction of Dinosaurs?
Everybody- kids and adults included, have always wondered about how the dinosaurs went extinct. There have been theories claiming that an apocalypse killed them all. Well, whatever it may be, all studies and signs claim that one massive extinction event has caused their extinction about 65 million to 66 million years ago – that a sudden change in environment has changed evolution altogether. Fossil records also suggest that several other species besides dinosaurs disappeared as a result of that impact.
There have been many theories explaining the cause of extinction of dinosaurs, but it was not until 1980 that more evidence arose for a great impact on earth – after the discovery of a link with a 177 kilometer wide impact crater near the Yucatan coast of Mexico (now known as Chixulub). The leading theory suggests that a crater slammed into the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico generating so much force that it created enough debris to block the Sun worldwide, killing any survivors by starvation.
It’s rather surprising that such a huge crater was not found late until 1980, given satellites have been doing Earth observation for 20 years at that point. This was because the link was hidden and preserved under a kilometer of younger rocks and sediments.
Some scientists also claim that a drastic change in climate – such as a very cold weather or numerous volcanic eruptions – served as a precursor to the catastrophe leading to the extinction of dinosaurs. Some other scientists believe that the volcanic eruptions were the main reason for their extinction rendering them weak, and that the impact is not the sole reason to have caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Other scientists claim that the volcanic eruptions only catalyzed the extinction; the catastrophe being the climax to the event.
These precursory phenomena made the global ecosystem much more sensitive to even relatively small triggers, so that what otherwise might have been a fairly minor effect shifted the ecosystem into a new state
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