The K-Pg Extinction Event of 66 MYA (Episode 62)

It's our most dramatic disaster ever this week, as we take a look back in time to explain what happens when an 10-kilometer-wide asteroid hits a planet with life on it. In short: the dinosaurs perish, an ice age follows global forest fires, and the air quality hit an all-time low for ten years straight. On the other hand, after the impact, mammals had the perfect conditions to become bigger and brainier, sharks survived quite nicely, and plant and insect life diversified and flourished. 

On this episode we're talking asteroids, glitter, impact craters, dueling geologists, and why fur was THE fashion accessory for Fimbulwinter. 

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Primary Sources for this episode include:

"Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction" by Luis Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, Helen V. Michel

Science Magazine Volume 208 Number 4448, 6 June 1980, pg. 1095-1108

"The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary" by Peter Schulte, et. al.