The KT extinction is interpreted as a Cretaceous Tertiary extinction. This is a global extinction that wiped out about 70% of the species that inhabited the earth in a relatively short time 65 million years ago. This catastrophic extinction is known as the KT extinction.
It occurred in late Cretaceous and early Tertiary time. It is the third in ferocity of the five major mass extinctions.
The KT mass destruction theory proposed by Louis Alvarez and his son is a widely accepted theory. They said that an asteroid about 15 kilometers in diameter hit the Earth and made a crater on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The crater is known as Chicxulub Crater.
The impact of the crater is believed to have penetrated the earth’s crust and released large amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere causing tsunamis, fires, wind storms, acid rain and volcanic activity. The dust probably blocked the sun to the earth which slowed down. the temperature of the earth.
The extinction of KT resulted in the extinction of 90% of marine species, 50% of marine species, 85% of terrestrial species, and 85% of species on 56% of the earth. This cataclysmic event ushered in the age of mammals.
The main group of animals that died out during this period were the dinosaurs. However, it has not been proven that a meteor strike killed the dinosaurs. Many dinosaur species declined millions of years after the KT extinction.
A group of reptiles including birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles survived extinction and evolved into modern birds and crocodiles. Of the marine plants and animals, only 13% of the plankton survived.
What is KT Extinction?
The point between Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T) time is known as the KT boundary. Geologists have placed this time at 65.5 million years ago.
Geologists have found that the KT boundary has much higher concentrations of iridium than normal. Iridium concentrations at the KT boundary are similar to those found in meteorites.
The asteroid that hit the Earth was 10 km in diameter. It not only destroyed thousands of kilometers of land but also created a dust cloud that blocked sunlight on the earth for years and plants, the food bases, could not survive and finally, the dinosaurs died out.
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