Why the dinosaurs were ‘already doomed’ before getting smashed by asteroid

When a massive asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs it killed were already on their way out, according to a new study.

Volcanic winters brought on by huge volcanic eruptions played a significant role in the extinction of dinosaurs before the asteroid struck, researchers believe.

The huge space rock credited with wiping out the dinosaurs that crashed in what is now the Gulf of Mexico is thought to have been between six and ten miles wide, travelling at around 20 kilometres a second.

The collision caused massive devastation, blasting a crater more than a hundred miles wide with sides taller than the Himalayas.

Dust and debris blasted into the air by the impact is thought to have played a major role in ending the reign of the dinosaurs, blocking sunlight and stopping plants from growing and leading to wide starvation.

But the latest research shows that massive eruptions 200,000 years before that could have caused a volcanic ‘winter’ with plunging temperatures that would have severely weakened the dinosaurs’ grip.

And scientists were able to determine the volume of key particles released into the atmosphere after the eruptions thanks to a new technique of analysing rock samples likened to cooking pasta.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, set out to estimate how much sulphur and fluorine was injected into the atmosphere due to the eruptions.

The researchers – from the US, UK, Sweden, Italy, Norway and Canada – remarkably discovered that the sulphur release could have triggered a drop in temperature around the world in a phenomenon known as a ‘volcanic winter’.

Don Baker, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Canada’s McGill University, said this would have likely ‘set the stage’ for the eventual extinction event of the devastating asteroid that wiped them off the planet.

The new research suggests that the asteroid impact, which also triggered a mega-earthquake that lasted as long as months, was just one part in the story of the dinosaurs’ extinction.

Searching for missing pieces to the puzzle, the study team delved into the historic volcanic eruptions of the Deccan Traps – a vast and rugged plateau in Western India formed by molten lava.

The researchers found that the Traps erupted an astonishing one million cubic kilometres of rock, which may have played a key role in cooling the global climate around 65 million years ago.

‘Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs,’ study co-author Professor Baker explained.

‘This instability would have made life difficult for all plants and animals and set the stage for the dinosaur extinction event.

‘Thus our work helps to explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species.’

The researchers’ work took them all around the world, from hammering out rocks in the Deccan Traps to analysing the samples in England and Sweden.

The team at McGill University even developed a new technique, likened to boiling pasta, to decode the volcanic history of the rocks.

The pioneering technique for estimating ancient sulphur and fluorine releases involved a complex combination of chemistry and experiments, Professor Baker explained.

‘Imagine making pasta at home: you boil the water, add salt, and then the pasta,’ he said.

‘Some of the salt from the water goes into the pasta, but not much of it.

‘Similarly, some elements become trapped in minerals as they cool following a volcanic eruption.’

Just as you could calculate salt concentrations in the water that cooked pasta by analysing salt in the pasta itself, the new technique allowed the scientists to measure sulphur and fluorine in rock samples.

With this information, the scientists then calculated the amount of these gases released during the eruptions.

The groundbreaking discoveries bring us one step closer to uncovering Earth’s ancient secrets.

The researchers also expressed hope that their findings could ‘pave the way for a more informed approach to our own changing climate’.

MORE: Nasa has finally cracked its way into $1,000,000,000 asteroid sample

MORE: Update from Nasa on asteroid ‘the size of the Shard’ predicted to hit this year

MORE: This asteroid filled with gold is worth more than everything on Earth put together

Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Share your views in the comments below