[meteorite-list] Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global firestorm??

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:51:37 -0600
Message-ID: <388548.72397.bm_at_smtp120.sbc.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

List,

Somehow I doubt a laboratory barbeque
is a good test of a global hypothesis.
I'm sure if I could tinker with their
fire-starter aparatus I could get it to
ignite a mass of live branches just
fine. I do it in my back yard with
a butane pocket lighter every fall.

I bet the experiment was fun, though.

But the soot argument goes back a
way. The lead author of the cited
study, Claire Belcher, published
several earlier papers suggesting
that the soot was all transported
from the impact site rather than
being formed locally from fire in
the sky frying the planet.

This article gives a good review of
both sides of the issue:
http://www.geotimes.org/aug08/article.html?id=nn_carbon.html

First, worth bearing in mind is that
EVERY suficiently large impact has
produced world-spanning soot layers:

"A Systematic Study of the Correlations
Between Meteorite Impacts and Soot
Formation"
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/28327177_A_Systematic_Study_of_the_C
orrelations_Between_Meteorite_Impacts_and_Soot_Formation
A really excellent study, worth the read.

More (and recent) studies:

"CU study provides new evidence
ancient asteroid caused global
firestorm on Earth"
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2013/03/27/cu-study-provides-new-evide
nce-ancient-asteroid-caused-global-firestorm#sthash.DvCOzUCZ.dpuf

"The Survivors! New Theories About
the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact 65
Million Years Ago":
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/07/the-survivors-new-theories-abou
t-the-chicxulub-asteroid-impact-65-million-years-ago.html

"The Rock That Changed The World":
http://www.esi.utexas.edu/outreach/ols/lectures/ppts/54.pdf

This next study pooh-pooh's the
soot, but keeps the fire. Personally,
I would rather have a little soot
fall on me than be exposed to a
red-hot 2700-degree sky... given
the choice.

"K-Pg extinction: Reevaluation of
the heat-fire hypothesis"
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgrg.20018/abstract
They say, "However, global firestorms
are consistent with both data and
physical modeling."

Worth noting is that massive impacts
are not the only possible source of
global wildfires. At oxygen concentrations
of 24% or more (the present concentration
is 20%), global wildfires will break
out spontaneously.

This level of oxygen concentration has
been exceeded at various eras in the
past:

"Since the start of the Cambrian period,
[the] atmospheric oxygen concentrations
have fluctuated between 15% and a
maximum of 35% of atmospheric volume
towards the end of the Carboniferous
period (about 300 million years ago)..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_oxygen

I can't help noting that a researcher
in cold, wet Exeter doubts the fires and
American researchers in our hot, dry South-
west find them much easier to believe...

Sterling Webb
------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On
Behalf Of Paul H. via Meteorite-list
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:39 AM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: [meteorite-list] Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global
firestorm??

Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global firestorm Jonathan O'Callaghan,
Daily Mail, January 22, 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2921547/Dinosaurs-NOT-wiped-g
lobal-firestorm-Asteroid-impact-not-hot-ignite-nearby-plants-study-claims.ht
ml

Doubt cast on global firestorm generated by dino-killing asteroid
(Pioneering new research has debunked the theory that the asteroid that is
thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs also caused vast global
firestorms that ravaged planet Earth.) University of Exeter.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/uoe-dco011915.php


Belcher, C. M., R. M. Hadden, G. Rein, J. V. Morgan, N. Artemieva, and T.
Goldin, 2015, An experimental assessment of the ignition of forest fuels by
the thermal pulse generated by the Cretaceous-Palaeogene impact at
Chicxulub. Journal of the Geological Society, First published on January 22,
2015, doi:10.1144/jgs2014-082
http://jgs.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/2015/01/19/jgs2014-082.abstract
http://jgs.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/2015/01/19/jgs2014-082.full.pdf
+html

Yours,

Paul H.
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Received on Thu 22 Jan 2015 06:51:37 PM PST