Member
Greenville, SC USA
The origin of Iridium is an interesting and fun story. Mind you, this is hypothesis that has been advanced by a portion of the scientific community and could be discredited at any time.
The thinking is that the iridium layer in the earth's crust is a very thin layer that is thought to have been deposited by the action of a very large meteorite that hit the waters off the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico approximately 65 million years ago. This meteor impact, the story goes, was so powerful and the resultant dust and debris were so dense that the sun was blocked from earth's surface for such an extended time that plant life died. The herbivorous dinosaurs died off thus killing off the carnivorous dynosaurs that fed on them.
When the dust settled, small warm blooded mammals (voles, moles, mice etc.) which had been eking out an existence and forced into caves and other small shelter spaces to avoid the predatory large cold blooded dinosaurs were free to vacate their shelters and feast on the plants that were again growing in the emergent sunlight. It is from these small, seemingly insignificant mammals that many think man evolved.
As Carl Sagan said, "We are all made from starstuff!"
The thinking is that the iridium layer in the earth's crust is a very thin layer that is thought to have been deposited by the action of a very large meteorite that hit the waters off the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico approximately 65 million years ago. This meteor impact, the story goes, was so powerful and the resultant dust and debris were so dense that the sun was blocked from earth's surface for such an extended time that plant life died. The herbivorous dinosaurs died off thus killing off the carnivorous dynosaurs that fed on them.
When the dust settled, small warm blooded mammals (voles, moles, mice etc.) which had been eking out an existence and forced into caves and other small shelter spaces to avoid the predatory large cold blooded dinosaurs were free to vacate their shelters and feast on the plants that were again growing in the emergent sunlight. It is from these small, seemingly insignificant mammals that many think man evolved.
As Carl Sagan said, "We are all made from starstuff!"
Does Mean I Must Buy High End Shaving Gear?
--Roger--
--Roger--
