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[indianabob]

Folks,

I hope this is not considered teaching.
The included web site explains how a meteor explosion sprayed "diamond dust" over part of the earth 13,000 years ago.  Ultra small particles are referenced.
Please comment about the meaning if any, relative to meteor impacts on the surface
Thanks, Bob

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090104/sc_nm/us_diamonds_comet

[aqrinc]

Hi Bob,

That is interesting but only a short story with no real research exposed yet. How about this headline though.

Dinosaur Extinctions: No Asteroid or Comet Impact Here.

Keywords: Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary, Late Cretaceous, dinosaurs, bolide impact, impact theory,
volcanic theory, mass extinctions, Field-dynamical Earth Model (FEM), ionizing radiation and extinction .

I bookmarked this site after reading about 12 pages, very interesting. Anyone can use the keywords to
find the story and do more research if they want. I would like to provide a link but only with the mods permission.

Introduction

About 65 million years ago some event took place that wiped out more than half of all life on Earth. In addition to this mass extinction there was a major face-lift for the Earth as a planet. The continents were shoved to new locations, and inland seas moved on and off the continents, as major ridge expansion took place, particularly in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the process there was major mountain building, volcanic eruptions, and some places sunk beneath the sea, while others rose from the sea. There is evidence of massive destabilization of the oceans and atmosphere. Powerful storms wrecked havoc as indicated by vigorous erosion and greatly increased continental weathering. Some elements, known as isotopes, show drastic shifts in abundance. Masses of sand, clay, and mud deposited layers everywhere, while other areas show missing sedimentary layers. The oceans show rapid desalination events, temperature transitions, and chemical changes.

The Late Cretaceous was the last for the dinosaur, and its close was the most catastrophic of any period in the history of life on Earth. More than one half of all the species on Earth became extinct. In some places 75% to 90% of the life forms vanished from the scene never to be seen again in the fossil record. With the close of the Cretaceous there came the wholesale extinction of large marine creatures (Plesiosaurs, Mosasaurs and Icthyosaurs), flying reptiles (Pterosaurs), ancestors of the Chambered Nautilus (Ammonites), Scleractinian and Hermatypic Corals, shellfish (Bivalves, Inoceramids, Rudists, Gastropods and Echnoids), chalk-forming creatures (Coccolithophorids, Planktonic Foraminifera, Beleminites, large Benthic Foraminifera and Radiolaria), and the Dinosaurs. Here was the end of one of the most successful life sytems in all of Earth history. What was it that overwhelmed the Earth?

george.

[musicman]

It was Noah's flood you heretics!!  That's what caused it all!!  It happened about 4000 years ago man!! 

[Dave in Tenn]

One small correction, Bob.  The article says these diamonds were the result of massive heat and pressure from the event, not that they came with the comets.  I don't think I'm misunderstanding that, but I might be.

Even the largest known impact craters from meteors visilbe on the earths surface were made by relatively small objects--their size is much more the result of the force of the impact than the size of the meteor.  Comets are larger, I think, and less 'solid', being made up of dirty Ice, as I understand it.  The explosion in Russia occured in the atmosphere--it was the shock waves that hit the earth's surface and caused the disruption.

Anyways, that's about the limit of my "Popular Science" understanding, so I don't know if that gets you any closer to an answer to your question.

 

[aqrinc]

Been to the China lately; Noah's flood apparently missed these bones.

The human race, as it staggers into 2009 amid prospects of more economic ruin and havoc generated by global warming, has not gone the way of the dinosaur yet.

Why bring up dinosaurs?

Because researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced they've unearthed 7,600 dinosaur bones since March in Shandong province. Many of those bones date to the late Cretaceous period (between 65 and 145 million years ago), which followed the Jurassic period and is about when dinosaurs became extinct.

The reported find -- its scope has not yet been verified by outside experts -- is so substantial that scientists may be able to learn more about why dinosaurs became extinct.

Elaborate details of the discovery have not been revealed, but Zhao Xijin, the lead paleontologist, told the Chinese state media, "This group of fossilized dinosaurs is currently the largest ever discovered in the world," and added, "The discoveries are expected to contribute to research on the mystery of dinosaur extinction."

Included in the findings were the skull of a large ceratopsian, a beaked flying dinosaur, and bones thought to belong to the tyrannosaurus and to the club-tailed ankylosaurus.

A large population of dinosaurs dominated China's landscape from about 235 million years ago. Hopefully, some other form of life isn't describing homo sapiens in such a manner, in the millennia ahead.

--Pete Thomas

Photo: A skeletal reconstruction of an Allosaur dinosaur, a relative of the tyrannosaur, looms menacingly in the visitor center of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Cleveland, Utah. Credit: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times

george.

It was Noah's flood you heretics!!  That's what caused it all!!  It happened about 4000 years ago man!! 

[Ninny]

Musicman? How do you KNOW that it was Noah's Flood, How do you KNOW it was 4,000 years ago? Oh, what's that? You learned it from god in a vision? Or did you learn that in church when you sit there so reverently on Sunday mornings? (Yeah right!! )  ahahaha! Oh me!
Kathy