European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 3, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse New discovery indicates asteroid killed dinosaurs John Noble Wilford new York times. After More than a decade of global searching and spirited debate geologists say they have found the clearest evidence yet that a massive object from outer space smashed into Earth 65 million years ago at the time of the Niass extinction wiping out the dinosaurs and Many other founts of life. Analysis of tiny Glass fragments from Haiti presumably produced in the extreme heat of an asteroid or Comet Impact has encouraged geologists to proclaim the Issue All but settled. An extraterrestrial objects Impact not the widespread volcanic eruptions of an alternative hypothesis must have left the telltale go Chomi Cal traces in 65-million-year-old sediments they conclude and so could have triggered or at least contributed to the ecological catastrophe at the time. A team of geologists led by Haraldur Sigurds son of the University of Rhode Island reported in a recent Issue of the British journal nature that at a Silance the Glass particles Are completely free of Small crystals and almost free of Gas or water a characteristics that virtually ruled out volcanic origin. Their chemical composition also reflected non volcanic origin. Jan Smit a geologist at the free University in Amsterdam the Netherlands and a Strong proponent of the Impact hypothesis wrote an accompanying commentary. He claimed that the new findings were significant because despite growing circumstantial evidence that a cosmic Impact was associated with the extinctions there had been a no a smoking gun in the form of aural e of products formed by an Impact.�?T�?T. _ the Glass drops called tektites a Supply the missing evidence and also a seem to provide the final riposte to the volcanic eruption _ the new evidence also has enabled geologists to fix their sights on the most probable location of ground Zero. They think the collision very Likely occurred in the area of the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean sea probably Ort the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The buried Chick club Crater there May Mark the spot. But other geologists and Many palaeontologists complain that proponents of the Impact hypothesis Are jumping to unwarranted conclusions a i concede them no Victory whatsoever a said., Charles b. Officer a geologist at Dartmouth College and a leading advocate of the volcanic by v Poth Sis. _ a. Like Many palaeontologists Robert Bakker of the University of Colorado museum in Boulder said the evidence might favor an extraterrestrial Impact at the end Iff the cretaceous period of geologic time when the mass extinction occurred but it has not been proved that this was primarily responsible Lor the extinctions. A efm still an agnostic about the cosmic event being so decisive Quot he said. A there could have been an Impact but the terrestrial victim profile is totally wrong. A. A if the extinctions were instantaneous from acid rain and global Cooling due to a dust Cloud then the frogs and salamanders in the tropics should have been the first to die Oil. Quot they survived and so did the tropical and temperate turtles. The least vulnerable should have been the big land animals but they were the hardest the idea that Impact could have done in the dinosaurs followed the discovery of an unusual abundance of the rare Clement iridium in sediments deposited worldwide at the end of the cretaceous period 65 million years ago. The iridium More common in meteorites was found in Clay that was virtually free of fossils and marked the Boundary Between the last dinosaurs of the cretaceous and the proliferation of mammals in the tertiary period that followed. The first discovery was made in �?~>78 by Walter Alvarez a geologist at the University of Canfor Nia at Berkeley. A he and his father Luis Alvarez a Nobel prize winning physicist at Berkeley deduced that the iridium was the residue of an impacting asteroid that created a worldwide Cloud of dust that blocked out sunlight causing temperatures to plummet and More than half the species to die a a a y v1 Al Hedayah 33/ f m Aden j Tow .c6. Yemen size 207,000 Square Miles three quarters the size of Texas population 11,000,000 1990 estimate. Main. Languages arabic. Overview Yemen is made up of a Sandy coastal Plain a dry and Hilly plateau an Interior desert in the East and a High Fertile Interior in Quot the West that includes the Best cultivated areas in Arabia. The current country was formed last year from two ancient kingdoms. North Yemen in the West was once part of the Queen of Sheba a kingdom but lost most of its Power by the time of Christ. It came under control of the ottoman Empire from which it became Independent in 1924. South Yemen to the East included Aden Long a Busy arabian trading port that came under British control in the 1830s. When British troops left in the 1960s, fighting Between rival Arab groups resulted in a pro marxist. Government. Relations Between the two countries gradually improved until they merged on May 22.its a fact the Economy of Western Yemen relies heavily on fanning and crafts for its income while Eastern Yemen is dependent on. Its Oil refinery and shipping facilities at n y q u Esti n a q a a a were there Ever any snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to throw out As legend has it a r there Are no snakes in Ireland now and no records of Snake fossils according to Clarence w. Meyers curator of the herpetology department of the american museum of natural history. A this does not prove that there never were snakes he says because there is also no Fossil record of the common Lizard which does exist in Ireland. A but the presumption is that if there Ever were snakes a he says a they were exterminated by the last period of glaciation and have not been Able to the glaciers receded about 14,000 years ago. Ireland a cold climate is marginal Quot for the survival of snakes although there arc a few snakes farther North on the european a Mainland. Meyers says the few species of snakes now in a England re invaded after the last glaciers but that a land Bridge that existed Between Scotland and Ireland was severed before any snakes could get Back to Ireland. A a would obese people survive longer without food and water than Skinny people would a they would probably last longer without food but not Walcer say James o. Hill a physiologist and expert on obesity at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tenn. A a in a situation without food coming in you use Energy that is. Stored and an obese person has a More stored. Energy than a lean person does a he says. A however an obese person.,. Would not last As Long As you might think because be uses that Energy at a greater rate than a lean More Energy is required to maintain a larger body mass he says. As for water obese people would not really have an advantage because fat does not store much extra water. No Yore fan Esmarch 3. 1991 sunday Pace 7
