NATS 1540 Study Guide - Final Guide: Tidal Acceleration, Volcanism, Relative Dating
Document Summary
Summary of materials as at week beginning october 21, 2019. The cretaceous extinction theories: alvarez asteroid theory and volcanism. Alvarez asteroid theory: earth was impacted by a huge asteroid or comet. Comet is composed of 2 trillion tons of rock, being 10 miles long and 6 miles wide. 40,000mph and gravity increases its speed to 45,000mph. Volcanism: occurred in an area called the decan traps of india, which not only destroyed the land but released noxious gases. Since the planets in our solar system can be found to have impact craters, namely those of. Mars and mercury, it is likely that earth was as well. Since earth"s axis tilts 23 degrees and has one moon, astronomer bill hartman theorized that a collision with a smaller planetary body in our solar system occurred. The planet was theia, roughly half the size of the earth, and orbited the sun at exactly the same distance as this newly forming earth.
