The Chilling Regularity of Mass Extinctions

The Atlantic ^ | 3 Nov 2015 | Adrienne Lafrance

[MtnClimber]

One thing we know for sure is that conditions on Earth were, shall we say, unpleasant for the dinosaurs at the moment of their demise. Alternate and overlapping theories suggest the great beasts were pelted with monster comets, drowned by mega-tsunamis, scorched with lava, starved by a landscape stripped of vegetation, blasted with the radiation of a dying supernova, cloaked in decades of darkness, and frozen in an ice age. Now, a pair of researchers have new evidence to support a link between cyclical comet showers and mass extinctions, including the one that they believe wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

[MtnClimber]

Cycle seems to occur on 26 million year intervals, but not every 26 million years.

[Fai Mao]

It is not chilling
It is not wrong
It is not evil
It simply is

There is no such thing as natural evil

[umgud]

Did they have globull warming back in those days?

[Cats Pajamas]

Chilling regularity my foot. Democrats almost never die out.

[SpaceBar]

Ethnic Swedes are next on the list.

[MtnClimber]

If this theory is correct, we may have missed large collisions when passing through the disk of the galaxy. We are about 30 light years past the disk right now.

[KoRn]

/mark

[17th Miss Regt]

pelted with monster comets, drowned by mega-tsunamis, scorched with lava, starved by a landscape stripped of vegetation, blasted with the radiation of a dying supernova, cloaked in decades of darkness, and frozen in an ice age.

None of these are correct. They were destroyed by an overzealous EPA.

[babygene]

I think what best enplanes this, is tat every now and then we have a SHTF moment...

[babygene]

“enplanes” = explains

[MUDDOG]

cyclical comet showers

Fire next time.

[Billthedrill]

Well, somebody had to post it.

[MtnClimber]

Good one! I really like The Far Side humor.

[minnesota_bound]

Imagine the weather report when the time comes for the apocalypse.

[Night Hides Not]

I thought it was Moochelle’s lunch program.

[Night Hides Not]

I thought it was Moochelle’s lunch program.

[frithguild]

Ping

[dp0622]

yep

[frithguild]

Black holes near the galactic center will orient with one pole toward the Milky Way central supermassive black hole. Gamma ray ejections from so oriented black holes will point outward from the galactic center, along the center plane of galactic rotation, putting our star in the sights of a gamma ray burst. This action of the so aligned black holes may as well plow out all manner of material, which may be the origin of increased solar activity/flares, a source of mass extinction not discussed in the article.