[Rockhounds] The Theory That Volcanoes Killed the Dinosaurs Is Officially Extinct

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

For years, scientists have floated an alternative theory to explain the
extinction of the dinosaurs—one involving extreme volcanism. It’s an
intriguing idea, but new research seems to have finally put this competing
explanation to rest.

Sixty-six million years ago, all dinosaurs (except for birds) were wiped
from the face of the Earth. Did the final blow come from devastating volcanic
eruptions
<https://gizmodo.com/new-studies-of-ancient-lava-add-mystery-to-the-dinosaur-1832791047>,
or a catastrophic asteroid impact
<https://gizmodo.com/new-research-casts-doubt-on-theory-that-volcanoes-cause-1841043493>
?

To answer this decades-old question
<https://gizmodo.com/was-the-disappearance-of-the-dinosaurs-actually-two-sep-5931965>,
researchers led by The University of Manchester reconstructed the average
air temperatures of the 100,000 years preceding the extinction event. Their
findings, detailed in a December 18 study
<https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado5478> published in the
journal *Science Advances*, confirm that the infamous asteroid was indeed
responsible for the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

https://gizmodo.com/the-theory-that-volcanoes-killed-the-dinosaurs-is-officially-extinct-2000541485