Thursday, March 09, 2006
Mass Extinctions - A Threat from Outer Space or Our Own Planet's Detox?
"University scientists suggest extraterrestrial theories are flawed and that more down to earth factors could have accounted for past mass extinctions
Earth history has been punctuated by several mass extinctions rapidly wiping out nearly all life forms on our planet. What causes these catastrophic events? Are they really due to meteorite impacts? Current research suggests that the cause may come from within our own planet – the eruption of vast amounts of lava that brings a cocktail of gases from deep inside the Earth and vents them into the atmosphere.
University of Leicester geologists, Professor Andy Saunders and Dr Marc Reichow, are taking a fresh look at what may actually have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and caused other similarly cataclysmic events, aware they may end up exploding a few popular myths."
technorati tags: mass, extinctions, planet, meteorite, dinosaurs, myths, atmosphere
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