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A new study casts doubt on the predominant theory regarding dinosaur extinction, questioning whether death occurred gradually or suddenly after the collision of a giant asteroid 66 million years ago.

The Chicxulub Event

At that time, a colossal asteroid struck Earth, specifically the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. This object, named Chicxulub, was moving at approximately 19 kilometers per second. The impact released energy more than a billion times that of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, triggering tsunamis, earthquakes, and global fires. Subsequently, an extensive period of darkness followed due to the large amount of dust and soot ejected into the atmosphere.

Extinction Hypotheses

Historically, the most accepted view was that dinosaurs, which dominated the planet, perished over several years. This gradual extinction was attributed to the weakening of plant photosynthesis caused by the lack of sunlight, leading to the collapse of food chains.

Evidence of Rapid Death

However, a recent research, published in the scientific journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, offers arguments for an alternative: a significant portion of dinosaurs could have died within a few hours after the impact. The researchers indicate that the generated heat and fire were more intense than previously predicted.

To reach this conclusion, scientists analyzed a thin layer of dust found in North America in 2023, aiming to understand atmospheric dust behavior. They integrated data from this modern layer with computational simulations of the Chicxulub event and geological information from that period.

The Role of Atmospheric Dust

The study revisits the initial process: the asteroid collision projected vast amounts of vaporized rock into the air. As this material dispersed through the Earth's atmosphere, it cooled and formed tiny droplets of rock, known as spherules. These particles, upon returning to the surface, released heat and caused planetary fire waves. Although this mechanism was known, the new work points to something different.

The authors discovered that part of this material did not turn into spherules. Instead, it remained suspended in the atmosphere as a cloud of ultrafine dust, several millimeters thick, enveloping the globe. According to the researchers, this dust not only obstructed sunlight but also acted as a thermal insulator, trapping heat from the fires and explosions on the surface. This would result in a 3.5 times greater warming than previously estimated, considering only the spherules—heat capable of rapidly killing many exposed animals.

Conclusion and Future Perspectives

The authors state that 'the heat and fire induced by the Chicxulub impact and the atmospheric reentry of ejected materials acted as a fatal blow to the dinosaurs and other life forms of the Cretaceous.' The research does not invalidate the idea of slow deaths from starvation, but adds a new dimension to the debate. Scientists suggest that both events—sudden death and subsequent starvation—could have occurred sequentially.

After the fires ended and the planet initially cooled, this layer of dust would continue to block sunlight for years or even decades, causing global cooling. The resulting lack of light would lead to the death of plants and the subsequent collapse of food chains, resulting in the death of survivors from starvation. However, more studies are still needed to validate this hypothesis, given that most known evidence of forest fires is concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, and there is no proof that such fires occurred on a planetary scale.

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Mass extinctions, giant volcanic eruptions, sudden ocean deoxygenation, and other large-scale geological changes on the planet may be linked to a common recurring pattern observed over tens of millions of years.

Cyclicity of Geological Events

This conclusion is based on a new study published in the scientific journal Evolving Earth. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that the most grandiose catastrophes in the planet's history follow a cycle lasting approximately 27.5 million years. The idea of periodicity in extreme geological phenomena is not new; it emerged back in the 1980s when scientists suggested that mass extinctions and other major events might repeat at relatively regular intervals. Despite this, the hypothesis remains a subject of debate within the scientific community.

Review of 89 Major Events

Geologist Michael Rampino from New York University reviewed existing evidence using updated geological timescales and modern statistical methods, concluding that this pattern persists. To conduct the research, Rampino examined 89 significant geological events recorded over the last 260 million years, relying on previously published datasets.

The analysis included mass marine extinctions, episodes of oceanic anoxia (when oceans lose oxygen), eruptions of large basaltic provinces, sea-level fluctuations, terrestrial tetrapod extinctions, changes in the rate of seafloor spreading, and intraplate volcanism. According to the researcher, all these records demonstrate a dominant periodicity of approximately 27.5 million years. Furthermore, a weaker secondary cycling with a period of about 8.9 million years was identified.

The study does not assert that one catastrophe directly causes another; instead, it suggests that different Earth systems periodically respond to the same long-term geological processes. However, the nature of these processes remains an open question.

Possible Causes for Earth's Rhythm

One discussed hypothesis relates to the planet's internal structure. The Earth's mantle is in constant motion due to extremely slow convective currents. According to Rampino, periodic changes in this process or the appearance of mantle plumes could influence phenomena such as volcanism, plate tectonics, and mountain building. Since these systems are interconnected, disturbances originating from the deep layers of the Earth can affect the surface, oceans, climate, and even the biosphere over millions of years.

Another possibility involves the interaction between the surface and the planet's interior. Long-term orbital changes can alter climate and sea level by redistributing vast amounts of water, ice, and sediment. Such mass movement can change stresses in the Earth's crust and upper mantle, thereby influencing volcanic and tectonic activity.

Cosmic Influence and the Galaxy

Rampino also considers hypotheses related to astronomical processes. As the Solar System orbits the center of the Milky Way, it oscillates above and below the galactic plane. The researcher notes that moments of these passages coincide with various major catastrophes recorded on Earth. Other scientists suggest that these crossings might gravitationally disrupt comets in the distant Oort Cloud, increasing the probability of impacts with large asteroids.

Another, more speculative hypothesis suggests that dark matter is concentrated near the galactic plane. In such a scenario, a small portion of this matter could be captured by Earth, generating additional heat in the planet's inner core over millions of years and influencing its geological activity. Nevertheless, the study emphasizes that there is currently no direct evidence supporting any of these mechanisms, so they remain highly debatable.

Asteroid Correspondence with the Cycle

Although asteroid impacts were not included in the statistical analysis of the 89 events, Rampino observes that the age of many of the largest known craters on Earth largely corresponds to the cycle proposed in previous studies of 27.5 million years. The researcher believes this coincidence warrants further investigation but refrains from concluding a causal link.

Ongoing Scientific Dialogue

Despite the new findings, the author acknowledges that defining cycles over hundreds of millions of years is a complex task. Geological records are incomplete, dating ancient events has constantly increasing errors, and statistical analysis may point to patterns that disappear as new data emerges. Nevertheless, Rampino stresses that the periodicity near 27.5 million years remained stable even after decades of refining geological scales and expanding databases.

In his view, if future research confirms this pattern, the largest catastrophes in Earth's history will cease to be viewed as isolated events and will begin to be interpreted as recurring manifestations of natural processes shaping the planet over hundreds of millions of years. Rampino concludes: 'Although these ideas are largely outside the mainstream of current geological thinking, they could be the first steps toward a significant conceptual breakthrough in Earth sciences, one that recognizes the global correlation of major geological events, the inherently periodic nature of the geological record over millions of years, and the astronomical connections that can more firmly place our planet in its true cosmic context.'