Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mount Everest slammed into the Earth, inducing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized detritus blasted through the atmosphere upon impact, falling back to Earth around the globe. Disastrous environmental consequences ensued: a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the plant and animal genera on Earth had ...
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Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mount Everest slammed into the Earth, inducing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized detritus blasted through the atmosphere upon impact, falling back to Earth around the globe. Disastrous environmental consequences ensued: a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the plant and animal genera on Earth had perished. This horrific chain of events is now widely accepted as the solution to a great scientific mystery: what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Walter Alvarez, one of the Berkeley scientists who discovered evidence of the impact, tells the story behind the development of the initially controversial theory. It is a saga of high adventure in remote locations, of arduous data collection and intellectual struggle, of long periods of frustration ended by sudden breakthroughs, of friendships made and lost, and of the exhilaration of discovery that forever altered our understanding of Earth's geological history.
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Add this copy of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom to cart. $56.72, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Tantor and Blackstone Publishi.
Add this copy of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom to cart. $84.47, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Tantor and Blackstone Publishi.
Walter Alvarez recounts how he and his team of scientists and researchers, including his wife and father, tracked down evidence to prove that 65 million years ago, the age of the dinosaurs ended with an impact on earth that brought on a weather change so dramatic, it killed almost everything along the food chain.
Alvarez claims to have written the book for the average reader, and I consider myself an above average reader. But the book is rather dense for such a small book - only seven chapters - especially when he gets into the science of geology and how to date rocks and sediment beds. I must admit, my eyes started glazing as I tried to process the math and process behind the various forms of dating rocks.
Otherwise, Alvarez tells a great story of how he and his team arrived to the impact theory, the evidence that amounted that proved his team right, the discovery of the impact area, and the proof that such an impact could dramatically alter the environment enough to kill when meteorites strike Jupiter in a reenactment of what happened on earth 65 million years ago.
It is a great read for anyone who has an interst in dinosaurs, geology or the end of the world. After all, if it could happen to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, it could happen to us now.
