Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Blog Stuff: Scientists gaze at Gaia's navel.
Using NASA's GRACE satellites, packed to the gills with accelerometers, star cameras, and other Big Science gizmos, scientists peeked up Gaia's frozen Antarctic skirt and discovered the remains of an impact crater so gynormous that you could toss the state of South Carolina in and hit nothing but net. Given the age and size, the crater was immediately picked out of a police lineup by eyewitnesses, who claim it wiped out 70% of all land-dwelling life some 250 million years ago, as well as shoving Australia northwards towards its eventual fender-bender with Eurasia. Scientists studying the Chicxulub Crater point out that, although theirs is a mere zit next to this newly discovered giant hickey on Gaia's crust, dinosaurs are still a lot cooler than trilobites.
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2 comments:
And you have to wonder what Mother Nature is going to do for an encore sometime in the future...
"a sentence should be like a serpent, quick with a sting it its tail."
That's what I love about your posts - they usually have a lovely sting in the tail. Thanks for the giggle. This crater stuff is fascinating. I guess with the nuclear winter after crater impact the dinosaurs stopped driving their SUVs which wrought havoc on the environment. And where are they now?
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