Tyrannosaurus rex and the crater of doom

Sixty-five million years ago a gigantic comet or asteroid as big as Mount Everest slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, creating an explosion on impact equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. It produced a cloud of roiling debris that blackened the sky for months as well as other geologic disasters--and triggered the demise of Tyrannosaurus rex. We know what happened largely because Walter Alvarez--synthesizing the findings of experts from a variety of scientific fields--has written a gripping story of the decades-long search for the cause of the dinosaurs' extinction. Painstakingly assembling clues from the Italian Apennines and the depths of the Pacific and presenting them with the excitement of a great novel, T. rex and the Crater of Doom is a book of undeniable importance and irresistible appeal by a major figure in contemporary science. ''Engaging and witty. Read Alvarez for and excellent account of how scientists pose questions and seek to solve them.''--Scientific American ''First-rate...Alvarez provides the up-close tale of the comet or asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.''--San Francisco Chronicle Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mt. Everest slammed into the Earth, causing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized impactor and debris from the impact site were blasted out through the atmosphere, falling back to Earth all around the globe. Terrible environmental disasters ensued, including a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the genera of plants and animals on Earth had perished. This horrific story is now widely accepted as the solution to a great scientific murder mystery - what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? In T. rex and the Crater of Doom, the story of the scientific detective work that went into solving the mystery is told by geologist Walter Alvarez, one of the four Berkeley scientists who discovered the first evidence for the giant impact. It is a saga of high adventure in remote parts of the world, of patient data collection, of lonely intellectual struggle, of long periods of frustration ended by sudden breakthroughs, of intense public debate, of friendships made or lost, of the exhilaration of discovery, and of delight as a fascinating story unfolded. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 1 Armageddon......Page 16 2 Ex Libro Lapidum Historia Mundi......Page 32 3 Gradulist versus Catastrophist......Page 56 4 Iridium......Page 72 5 The Search for the Impact Site......Page 95 6 The Crater of Doom......Page 127 7 The World After Chicxulub......Page 151 Notes......Page 168 Index......Page 192 One of the scientists who discovered the first evidence of a giant impact relates the story of the scientific investigation that revealed the cause of the great extinction sixty-five million years ago