It was first in the 1980's that physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez were working together on a geology expedition in Italy. On the expedition they accidentally discovered a band of sedimentary rock that contained unusually high levels of the rare element iridium. Then they discovered that chemical dating put the rock at around 65 million years old. Now this is about the time the dinosaurs died out.
Walter and Luis hypothesised that the iridium, which was in a very even, widespread distribution (not just in Italy), was the result of a giant asteroid that hit earth, sending smoke, dust and iridium into the atmosphere.
Now for a scary thought - 99.9% of all species that ever lived are extinct, 65 million years ago it was the dinosaurs turn.
So basically the earth was hit by a astroid several kilometres across as the brainy scientists, Luis Alvarez and Walter Alvarez discovered, but what really happened?
Something like this would have happened: A light streaks across the sky brighter than the sun! one second later comes a super hot blast with the force of 7 billion atom bombs!!!! The sky goes black and everything would have been blown off their feet. Next burning rocks would have rained down. Later on in the day it would start to rain acid. The weather forecast will be cold for 10,000 years, plus lots of chocking gas from volcanoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But in some ways the end of the dinosaurs is good news, during the dinosaur era your ancestors were tiny, timid and terrified. But after the astroid destroyed the dinosaurs the mammals peeked out from their burrows and took over the earth. So without a lovely lumpy space rock we could be 5 cm long and live in a hole.
Something like this would have happened: A light streaks across the sky brighter than the sun! one second later comes a super hot blast with the force of 7 billion atom bombs!!!! The sky goes black and everything would have been blown off their feet. Next burning rocks would have rained down. Later on in the day it would start to rain acid. The weather forecast will be cold for 10,000 years, plus lots of chocking gas from volcanoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But in some ways the end of the dinosaurs is good news, during the dinosaur era your ancestors were tiny, timid and terrified. But after the astroid destroyed the dinosaurs the mammals peeked out from their burrows and took over the earth. So without a lovely lumpy space rock we could be 5 cm long and live in a hole.
