Volcanoes in India began spewing more magma around the time an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. These eruptions and the asteroid impact both contributed to the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.

A team led by Paul Renne at the Berkeley Geochronology Center in California used argon isotopes to date volcanic rocks from India's Deccan Traps. They conclude that within 50,000 years of the impact, the volcanoes in this area began to pour out more lava with each eruption, even though the frequency of eruptions decreased.

Seismic waves generated by the impact, which happened off what is now Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, could have altered the geology of the Deccan Traps by expanding the size of magma chambers, for example.

Science 350, 76–78 (2015)