Re: Impacts and Extinctions

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005, mjmurphy wrote:

> Interesting debate in Astrobiology Magazine , by several varieties of
> scientist, on large rocks and their effect on the history of the planet.
> Apparently, the KT is the only mass extinction that can be placed in
> proximity to an asteroid/comet impact with any degree of certainty.

Several varieties, yes.  But not much in the biology vein!  This is
curious for a debate on extinction of biological organisms.  Very
refreshing is Peter Ward's wet blanket on the Raupian jingoism expressed
by some very uninformed debaters.

I am left with this question: Why did the K/T impact cause mass
extinctions if others did not?