
Did Oil Kill the Dinosaurs? - anthotny
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/darkness-falls-on-the-dinosaurs
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dexwiz
I think its strange that when theories about "What Killed the Dinosaurs" are
presented, it's always framed as that theory was the only one in play. So far
some of my favorites are:

1\. Massive Firestorms caused by the impact

2\. Dust causes Nuclear Winter scenario

3\. Molten Glass Rain. Fine particles ejected into the upper atmosphere cool
into glass beads, fall back down, superheat the atmosphere, and bake the
surface.

And now oil soot cools the atmosphere. Why are these theories always
exclusive. Multiple of these things could have happened, causing an initial
massive die off from heat, and then a following slow die off caused by
cooling.

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solipsism
It seems you didn't read the article. It talks about oil as a co-conspirator.

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donatj
Interesting… So the asteroid set off all the built up underground oil, and
that's what actually killed the dinosaurs?

So in theory by burning off all the oil we might actually be saving ourselves
from death by asteroid?

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anthotny
Well, saving ourselves from the sooty part of death by asteroid, but not the
acid-rain part. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

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InclinedPlane
Even if oil contributed to the larger mass extinction, the dinosaurs were dead
within hours, not days. The impact alone would have heated the entire
atmosphere to about the temperature of an oven.

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Intermernet
Probably longer than that:

>The length of time taken for the extinction to occur is a controversial
issue, because some theories about the extinction's causes require a rapid
extinction over a relatively short period (from a few years to a few thousand
years) while others require longer periods.[1]

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_e...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event#Duration)

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Retric
180 kilometers (110 miles) in diameter and 20 km (12 mi) in depth.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater#Effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater#Effects)

World wide wildfires, followed by years of minimal sunlight. That would
quickly kill most plant life, and 99+% of everything larger than a badger in
the first year. Ocean life would be somewhat insulated from the effect and
predators can survive on prey or other predators for a while. But, this is not
something that got better in the first year.

PS:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_crater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_crater)
is another contender, but it's almost to large.

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wmccullough
Oil, the silent killer

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programminggeek
Big Oil killed the dinosaurs.

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EngineerBetter
I'd love to know the point of this article, but can't bear to wade through the
waffle. Is this a print article reproduced online?

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Jtsummers
Read the last 4 of the 9 total paragraphs if you want a TL;DR.

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PavlovsCat
That's not even where the summary begins, that's where the actual content
starts. So many things are like a TV show where every episode consists mostly
of "previously on" :/

