Without a debate on what killed the dinosaurs, is there any opposing view on the Chicxulub “area” being the remains of a giant impact crater *65M or so years ago? Any dissent?
*I guess not it would be about 65,000,010, since it was discovered ten or so years ago, and it was 65M years old then.
I corresponded for a while with a wacko who insisted that the Moon was spewed out of the Pacific basin 65 mya. . . but I know of no serious academic controversy over Chicxulub. Before Chicxulub was recognized as an impact crater, it was speculated that the Manson Crater in Iowa was the site of the K-T impact, and there may be some die-hards.
I am told that some palentologists are clinging to “climate change” or “plague” as the cause of the extinction. They apparently don’t appreciate astronomers horning in on their turf. 
I don’t think there is any controversy left regarding the event itself… but I’ve yet to hear a good explanation as to why all manner of dinosaurs appear to have been eliminated around this time, but many other cold blooded reptiles, both terrestrial and aquatic, with presumably similar habits, muddled through quite nicely.
I’m not talking about the fact that the Mammals, which obviously had some physiological advantages, took off at about this time, but why Turtles, Crocodillians, and other reptiles didn’t get wiped out also. Presumably they would have been under the same ecological pressures the Dinosaurs were yet seem to have survived or even prospered during the same time period. Why?
What is it about the Dinosaur makeup that doomed them but not the others? My guess is that we will probably never know…
As far as I have been able to determine, the Chicxulub crater seems to be universally touted as an impact crater dated to 65mya. Whether the impact which formed this crater was the ultimate cause for the demise of the dinosaurs, et al., is another matter (i.e., there is debate on that topic).
In deference to Mjollnir’s request in the OP, I will simply acknowledge this:
With this:
Dinosaurs were not alone (even among reptiles) in becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.
There is a current theory that the massive basaltic flows in India, specifically the Deccan traps, caused either a massive greenhouse effect due to emitted CO2, or threw up so much dust it did exactly the reverse causing widespread cooling and this occurred 65million years ago.
Some have speculated that the K-T asteroid impact took place during the couple of thousand years this was happening and their combined effects are what did for the dinosaurs.
Look here for more,
http://filebox.vt.edu/artsci/geology/mclean/Dinosaur_Volcano_Extinction/#anchor744966
It is known that the Deccan basaltic fows took place over a very short geological time, magnetometer readings confirm that there is no change in magnetic orientation between the upper layer and the lower layers which are over 1.5 miles thick in total so the whole lot was laid down in very much less than 10000years.
There have been several episodes of such events such as the Columbia basin flows, Siberia plateau, and the South America Parana platform, there is speculation based on some evidence that mass extinction events ocurred during these times.
It is hard to imagine how such massive volcanic events could have had no impact on life, especially when you look at the effect of Mount Pinatubo and Mount St Helens events on world climate which are many thousands of times smaller than the basaltic flows which were erupting in some cases for hundreds or thousands of years.The Icelandic Laki fissure eruptions in 1783 caused the ‘year without a summer’ across the Northern hemisphere and yet this is tiny compared to the great basaltic flows.
Here is some highly relevant information
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/india/deccan.html
These groups were probably also adversely affected by the events of the K/T extinction. I doubt they thrived during what were almost certainly very hard times. The difference is that while all members of the extinct taxa were eliminated, somehow breeding populations of other taxa survived. Perhaps most of the individuals of surviving taxa were wiped out too. Why some of them survived, though, is an interesting question, to which I don’t have a good answer (does anyone?).
Most likely, the survivors prospered only after the elimination of many competing taxa left many vacant niches for them to fill.
As for impact craters, I don’t know much about that. I’ve never heard of alternate candidates besides Chicux… Chiucux… Chiclux… Ahhhh, the one in Mexico. Isn’t there an ancient large impact crater in northeastern Canada? Could that be a candidate?
He may have been confused about the dates and the process but there is/was a seriously touted theory I remember reading about at least 10 to 20 years ago that the moon was originally part of the earth and huge comet/meteoriod/asteriod/whatever impact early in the in earth’s formation process knocked out a enormous chunk of material that coalesced into the moon. I don’t know if this theory has been disproven or not at this point.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by wevets *
AFAIK the Manicouagan crater dates from the Jurassic era.
From an article in SpaceViews entitled Lunar Prospector Data Supports Moon Origin Theory:
Another article that says the same thing.
And there’re many more. A quick scan of the subject seems to show the impact theory (early in formation of the solar system, i.e., way the heck before 65 mya) of the moon’s origin pulling ahead of the pack about 1999 (A lot of what you’ll find predates that).
Hee hee, looove being able to say that. ‘Reckon it was ‘bout 1980 or so, some fellers were pushin’ the theory that Iceland was the site of the crater for the dino killin’ asteroid. Seems they thought the 'steroid punched through the Earth’s crust just deep 'nuff to cause a massive eruption of stuff that not only blacked out the sun, but also left us Iceland. Don’t know when, why, or even if the theory fell out of favor, but there you have it.