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Terrestrial catastrophe caused by cometary impact at the end of Cretaceous

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Abstract

Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcite-compensation depth in the oceans after the detoxification of the cyanide.

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  1. Geological Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland

    Kenneth J. Hsü

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  1. Kenneth J. Hsü
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Hsü, K. Terrestrial catastrophe caused by cometary impact at the end of Cretaceous. Nature 285, 201–203 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285201a0

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