T. rex and the crater of doom / Walter Alvarez ; [with a new foreword by Carl Zimmer].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alvarez, Walter, 1940-

Series:

Princeton Science Library

Princeton science library

Princeton Science Library ; 73

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catastrophes (Geology).

Extinction (Biology).

Cryptoexplosion structures--Mexico--Campeche, Bay of, Region.

Cryptoexplosion structures.

Chicxulub Crater.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 p.)

Edition:

With a New Foreword by Carl Zimmer

Other Title:

Tyrannosaurus rex and the crater of doom

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword / Zimmer, Carl

Preface

Chapter 1. Armageddon

Chapter 2. Ex Libro Lapidum Historia Mundi

Chapter 3. Gradualist versus Catastrophist

Chapter 4. Iridium

Chapter 5. The Search for the Impact Site

Chapter 6. The Crater of Doom

Chapter 7. The World after Chicxulub

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [147]-169) and index.

ISBN:

9781400847402

1400847400

OCLC:

1023996693