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Science 8 March 1985:
Vol. 227. no. 4691, pp. 1161 - 1167
DOI: 10.1126/science.227.4691.1161
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Articles

Terminal Cretaceous Environmental Events

Charles B. Officer 1 and Charles L. Drake 2

1 Research professor in the Earth Sciences Department, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755.
2 Professor in the Earth Sciences Department, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755.

The geologic record of terminal Cretaceous environmental events indicates that iridium and other associated elements were not deposited instantaneously but during a time interval spanning some 10,000 to 100,000 years. The available geologic evidence favors a mantle rather than meteoritic origin for these elements. These results are in accord with the scenario of a series of intense eruptive volcanic events occurring during a relatively short geologic time interval and not with the scenario of a single large asteroid impact event.


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Mass extinctions: the view of a sceptic.
A. HOFFMAN (1989)
Journal of the Geological Society 146, 21-35
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New plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Antarctica.
S. Chatterjee and B. J. Small (1989)
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End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction Event: Argument for Terrestrial Causation.
A. Hallam and A. HALLAM (1987)
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Magnetic Field Reversals, Polar Wander, and Core-Mantle Coupling.
V. Courtillot, V. COURTILLOT, and J. BESSE (1987)
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Shocked Quartz in the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Clays: Evidence for a Global Distribution.
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Lightning Strike Fusion: Extreme Reduction and Metal-Silicate Liquid Immiscibility.
E. J. Essene, E. J. ESSENE, and D. C. FISHER (1986)
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Iridium Abundances Across the Ordovician-Silurian Stratotype.
P. Wilde, P. WILDE, W. B. N. BERRY, M. S. QUINBY-HUNT, C. J. ORTH, L. R. QUINTANA, and J. S. GILMORE (1986)
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Biological extinction in earth history.
D. Raup (1986)
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J. Smit, J. SMIT, and F. T. KYTE (1985)
Science 230, 1292-1293
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Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinctions: Alternative Models.
B. M. FRENCH (1985)
Science 230, 1293-1294
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Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinctions: Alternative Models.
C. B. OFFICER and C. L. DRAKE (1985)
Science 230, 1294-1295
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