INDONESIAN EYE, JAKARTA – The discovery of several fossils of ancient animals including dinosaurs has recently been scattered in various regions of the world. Where are these great creatures? how do they disappear and become extinct?
One of the most well-known theories of the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs is the hypothesis of Luis and Walter Alvarez in 1980. They theorized that a meteor the size of a mountain hit Earth 66 million years ago. Really?
Dinosaurs are ancient animals that became extinct about 66 million years ago. According to Alvarez, mass extinctions are caused by extraterrestrial objects. The extinction event was also linked to a large impact crater along the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, about 93 miles wide. Chicxulub Crater appears to be of the right size and age to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs.
In 2019, paleontologists excavated North Dakota and found fossils and large amounts of broken glass that allowed for the existence of blobs of atmospheric rock that rained down on Earth.
Despite his controversial theories, Luis Alvarez is a Nobel laureate in radiation and nuclear research. Together with his son Walter Alvarez who is a geologist.
Alvarez discovered iridium from an asteroid in the Paleogene limestone layer (where dinosaur fossils were found). So they concluded that the dinosaurs became extinct because of the asteroid impact. The asteroid hit instantly killed the dinosaur it hit. The impact filled Earth with a lot of dust, gas, radiation, and debris that changed Earth’s climate and covered it from the Sun for a long time. This made the dinosaurs unable to survive so that it ended in mass extinction.
Volcano eruption
Apart from meteors, the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs was due to the massive eruption of the world’s largest volcano, the Deccan Traps. This eruption occurred about 66 million years ago.
According to Volcano World, the Deccan Traps erupted releasing massive amounts of lava and gas that covered the Earth for years. This volcanic activity causes changes in Earth’s climate. Dinosaurs could not adapt to climate change and eventually disappeared from Earth.
Comet
There is a new theory similar to the asteroid theory by Alvarez. But the comet theory suggests that the extinction of the dinosaurs was due to the impact of a comet. The comet originated from the Oort cloud (a ball of debris at the edge of the Solar System) that was hit by Jupiter’s gravitational field.
A collision with Jupiter’s gravity increases the speed of the comet, it’s like Jupiter kicking a ball. This comet then hit Earth and released a huge energy in the form of an explosion. This impact activates the volcanic activity of the volcano and triggers an earthquake.
Comet strikes also produce dust, gas, radiation, and debris that fill the atmosphere. Makes Earth’s atmosphere black and impenetrable to the Sun. This causes sudden climate changes and leads the Earth to extremely cold temperatures. Large creatures such as dinosaurs that cannot adapt then experience mass death to extinction in a short time.
Reporter: Fadila Aliah Hakim
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