[meteorite-list] Professor Says Shiva Crater in India Could Be Dinosaur-Ending Impact Site

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.dailytoreador.com/home/news/2006/11/20/News/Tech-Professor.Says.Indian.Crater.Could.Be.DinosaurEnding
.Impact.Site-2469093.shtml

Tech professor says Indian crater could be dinosaur-ending impact site
Naomi Kaskela
The Daily Toreador (Texas) 
November 20, 2006

Sankar Chatterjee, curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech
and Horn professor of geosciences, is known in the science world for his
work in several areas of research, including the Shiva Crater in India.
The publication of his study regarding the crater and its possible
implications is expected to receive national attention in the near
future, said William Glen, visiting scientist and historian of the U.S.
Geological Survey.

The peer-reviewed study on the Shiva Crater suggests it is the result of
a meteorite impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65
million years ago.

Before the Shiva Crater was suggested as the reason for the mass
extinction, it was believed that another crater, the Chicxulub Crater in
Mexico, was the cause, Chatterjee said.

However, the Chicxulub Crater is 300,000 years older than when the
extinction occurred, Chatterjee said, which led to the search for
another explanation of the mass extinction.

"From the very beginning, we knew this is the killer meteorite, the
cause of the extinction," he said. "This is just the beginning of the
whole study."

The Shiva Crater, according to the Astrobiology Magazine Web site,
measures 600 kilometers by 400 kilometers, and was made by a meteorite
that measured 40 kilometers across.

"We cannot visualize what would happen if a meteorite of this size would
crash into our planet," he said.

Some possible results include darkness and plants and animals being
wiped out, he said, just as the dinosaurs were killed.

Asish Basu, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Rochester
in Rochester, N.Y., said he reviewed the paper for Chatterjee.

"I studied those things a long time ago," he said. "I haven't done any
more work on the crater since."

However, his knowledge of the subject matter helped him when reviewing
it, he said.

While Basu has not studied the Shiva Crater specifically since around
1988, he has done research into another mass extinction that occurred
251 million years ago.

This extinction caused almost 95 percent of all life to be destroyed,
while the impact that caused the Shiva Crater caused around 70 percent
of all sea life to be destroyed, he said.

Basu said he believes the publication of Chatterjee's study will make an
impact on the science world.

"I think it will invigorate the field and people will be more interested
in confirming his hypothesis," he said. "It's a very interesting study,
and he is a very good scientist."

Glen said he also has conducted research concerning the Shiva Crater and
has come to Tech to lecture on the subject on Chatterjee's request.

Now that he is retired, Glen said he studies more of the history of
science that includes studying the people involved, including
individuals like Chatterjee.

"He's just a very gifted individual," he said. "He's competent in many
different fields. I can only gaze in wonderment at what he must sound in
his native language, because he is so articulate in his second."

Both Glen and Basu said one result of the study being published is what
it will do in terms of the future of this particular area of research.

"His arguments are compelling enough to now require further
consideration," Glen said. "Each piece of evidence to date is not the
strongest in its particular, but it adds up to a fairly strong argument.
It's a culminating publication of ideas that he's now promulgated for
several years."