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Terrestrial catastrophe caused by cometary impact at the end of Cretaceous

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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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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