Abstract
Along with the origin of life, the quest for the ultimate cause of the end of the dinosaurs and ~72% of other species is one of the most publicized questions in the history of our planet. So, it probably should not have come as a surprise that when Walter Alvarez and his team launched the impact-extinction theory, the opposition and the resistance against the theory was strong from the beginning and continues up to the present day. This paper follows the winding road around the roadblocks that were set up against the theory and how both the opposition against and accumulation of new data, e.g., the finding of the Chicxulub impact structure and extraterrestrial Cr isotope ratios to further develop the theory, went hand in hand. Often the roadblocks were overcome, but new ones were set up, and in the struggle to surmount these, the proponents were forced to look back on their arguments, to carefully re-formulate their viewpoints, and to check whether tunnel-vision had developed that might prevent seeing the data available in a different light. However, looking back on the competition among proponents and opponents 40 years later, the impact-extinction theory is stronger than ever before. It has survived and matured from a hypothesis into a well-established theory, although many questions remain to be solved.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | From the Guajira Desert to the Apennines, and from Mediterranean Microplates to the Mexican Killer Asteroid |
| Subtitle of host publication | Honoring the Career of Walter Alvarez |
| Editors | C. Koeberl, P. Claeys, A. Montanari |
| Publisher | Geological Society of America |
| Pages | 391-414 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780813795577 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780813725574 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2022 |
Publication series
| Name | Special Paper of the Geological Society of America |
|---|---|
| Volume | 557 |
| ISSN (Print) | 0072-1077 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I warmly acknowledge my partner, Jesse, and countless friends and colleagues who have helped me during the last 40 years as the theory further developed. First and foremost, Walter Alvarez, who I first met in the field in 1973 in my field area in Spain. However, neither of us remembered that feat until Walter rediscovered an old slide of his! Next time we met was over the largest iron meteorite on display, the 20 ton Agpalilik, during the Copenhagen 1979 conference. Frank Kyte provided the iridium analysis of Figure 13. Tom Roep measured and drafted the current directions of Figure 11 (Smit et al., 1996). Reviews by Steven Goderis, Walter Alvarez, and Peter Ward are greatly appreciated. This review is by no means intended to be complete, and I apologize to those I may have left out!
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Geological Society of America.
Funding
I warmly acknowledge my partner, Jesse, and countless friends and colleagues who have helped me during the last 40 years as the theory further developed. First and foremost, Walter Alvarez, who I first met in the field in 1973 in my field area in Spain. However, neither of us remembered that feat until Walter rediscovered an old slide of his! Next time we met was over the largest iron meteorite on display, the 20 ton Agpalilik, during the Copenhagen 1979 conference. Frank Kyte provided the iridium analysis of Figure 13. Tom Roep measured and drafted the current directions of Figure 11 (Smit et al., 1996). Reviews by Steven Goderis, Walter Alvarez, and Peter Ward are greatly appreciated. This review is by no means intended to be complete, and I apologize to those I may have left out!
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 15 Life on Land
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