Source: www.economist.com
PORTLAND, OREGON, USA, October 22, 2009: The story of how the dinosaurs disappeared is getting more and more complicated.
Everyone knows that the dinosaurs were exterminated when an asteroid hit what is now Mexico about 65m years ago. Well, it now seems possible that everyone was wrong. The Chicxulub crater, as it is known, may have been a mere aperitif. According to Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University, the main course was served later. Dr Chatterjee has found a bigger crater–much bigger–in India. His is 500km across. The explosion that caused it may have been 100 times the size of the one that created Chicxulub. He calls it Shiva.
Dr Chatterjee presented his latest findings on Shiva to the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon, on October 18th. He makes a compelling case, identifying an underwater mountain called Bombay High, off the coast of Mumbai, that formed right at the time of the dinosaur extinction. This mountain measures five kilometers from sea bed to peak, and is surrounded by Shiva’s crater rim.