Article: SEAFLOOR CRATER MAY HOLD CLUE TO EXTINCTIONS SITE OFF NOVA SCOTIA IS FIRST TO PROVIDE SEDIMENT LAYERS CONTAINING FOSSIL RECORD BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER IMPACT

A huge undersea crater off the coast of Nova Scotia, punched out when a chunk of rock more than a mile across smashed into the Earth some 50 million years ago, might be a key to proving a link between meteorite impacts and the extinction of living species, scientists said last week.

The idea that the impact of large asteroids or comets could kill off many entire species of plant and animal life has been a subject of raging scientific controversy since it was first proposed seven years ago. The theory arose from the discovery of signs of a huge meteorite impact at the same time a mass extinction wiped out the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.

The discovery of this undersea crater, which ...

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