Re: ...intriguing theory on WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

I got to admit; the timing of it (Earth/Moon separation) is novel, at least to 
me. In fact, I find portions of the theory highly entertaining. 

As it is now well-known what 'light gravity' does to bone structure, I would 
think a quick look at the bones of say, a cow-sized L. Cret. something-or-other 
might tell you if the gravitational field was significantly different than 
present. Not to mention trees. I think my spreading oaks might look a trifle 
different, in macro or micro, in "near-zero" gravity. And not to mention the 
evidence in said materials left by the proposed sudden field change (occurring 
at the 'liberation' of the moon). Not any of that it is really necessary ...

Fun, fun, fun ... gee, no tides pre-k/t! And the Coriolis forces on 
paleo-weather systems! Wow.

Don 

----- Original Message ----
From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
To: DML <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2007 8:12:35 PM
Subject: Re: ...intriguing theory on WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS


> http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/WHAT_REALLY_KILLED_THE_DINOSAURS.html

Forget about it, the guy doesn't know what he's talking about (...and
 what's
worse, he clearly doesn't know _that_ he doesn't know what he's talking
about). For example, "the shift from gymnosperms to angiosperms"
 happened 40
million years earlier than he claims. Also, cyclostratigraphy shows
 that the
Milankovic cycles (of the tilting of the Earth's axis and other stuff)
started much longer ago... I know of terminal Permian evidence for
Milankovic cycles...

> Sorry but I have just got in from the pub, but surely the KT story is
 of
> continental drift, massive volcanism and the KT impact.

What continental drift? Nothing spectacular at all happened at that
 time. No
birth or death of an ocean, no first or last contact between
 continents,
nothing.

> There is no silver bullet.

No, but there is _the bomb_.

A few equations for you:

volume of a sphere = (4*pi*r^3)/3
r = 5 to 6 km
mass = volume x density
average density of rock... look it up
kinetic energy = (m*v^2)/2 -- that's right, half the mass times _the
 square
of velocity_
velocity of something that drops from the sky... thousands of km per
 second

Do the math, and then remember all that kinetic energy turns to heat
 upon
impact.

Kablooie.