THE ALVAREZ HYPOTHESIS

The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other living things was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth sixty-five million years ago, called the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Evidence indicates that the asteroid fell in the Yucatán Peninsula, at Chicxulub, Mexico. The hypothesis is named after the father-and-son team of scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez, who first suggested it in 1980. In March 2010 an international panel of scientists endorsed the asteroid hypothesis, specifically the Chicxulub impact, as being the cause of the extinction. A team of 41 scientists reviewed 20 years of scientific literature and in so doing also ruled out other theories such as massive volcanism. They had determined that a 10–15 km (6–9 mi) space rock hurtled into earth at Chicxulub. The rock's size could be approximately the size of Martian moon Deimos (mean radius 6.2 km); the collision would have released the same energy as 100 teratonnes of TNT (420 ZJ), over a billion times the energy of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Alvarez Hypothesis: Origin and Evidence
Parrish illustration of asteroid blastIn the late 1970's geologist Walter Alvarez, and his father, Nobel-prize winning physicist Luis Alvarez, identified an unusual clay layer at the K/T boundary in Italy. This clay contained an unusually high concentration of the rare-earth element iridium ­ 30 times the level typically found in the Earth's crust. Why was the discovery of iridium so important? Although iridium is rare in the crust, it is abundant in many meteorites and asteroids as well as the Earth's core. With this evidence, Alvarez hypothesized that an asteroid must have struck the Earth right at the K/T boundary. Further investigation has revealed that this iridium-rich layer of clay occurs at more than 100 sites around the world,

It was estimated that to produce the amount of iridium in the clay layer, the impact object would have been 10 km in diameter. Further evidence of an impact was discovered in the form of small grains of impact-shocked quartz and beads of impact glass (tektites) within the clay layer. Shocked quartz is formed by high-pressure shock waves, and is found at nuclear bomb sites and in meteor craters. Tektites are formed from the condensation of vaporized meteorite particles. Although shocked quartz has been found in K/T layers worldwide, tektites decrease in size with increasing distance from the impact site until they are altogether absent.

FUN FACTS!!!😆

• Luis Alvarez and Walter Alvarez (father son) discovered this theory
• Discovered in 1980

ENJOY THIS REALISTIC DINOSAUR WILE YOU WAIT