Double Whammy

A scientist argues that the Chicxulub meteorite 65 miilion years ago off the Yucatan peninsula was just the warm-up for the dinosaur extinction:

Dinosaurs were killed off by a meteor that hit the Earth 300,000 years after the one blamed for their extinction, a scientist has claimed.

Dr Gerta Keller, from Princeton University, New Jersey, insists the Chicxulub impact off the coast of Mexico 65 million years ago could not on its own have wiped out the dinosaurs.

Evidence of the crater left by the giant asteroid or comet has been found under the sea off the coast of Yucatan.

But according to Dr Keller, Chicxulub was only the warm-up for a much larger impact more than a quarter of a million years later. It was this meteor which left a tell-tale layer of extraterrestrial iridium in rocks around the Earth, not the earlier one, she says.

However, no-one has yet found the crater from the “final straw” impact which ended the age of reptiles in one of the largest ever mass extinctions.

“There is some evidence that it may have hit in India,” said Dr Keller.

The crater, named Shiva by one expert, is estimated to measure 310 miles in diameter. However, there is little proof of its existence.

So – nice idea, but not much in the way of, um, evidence for this. How difficult can it be to find a 310-mile diameter crater? Still, if you want to find out about known meteor craters, you can check out the Earth Impact Database (via). Just click on the continent of your choice at the top of the page. In Europe they seem to be centred round the Baltic, with a secondary group in the Ukraine. Shows you where God’s been directing his wrath….