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Classroom for Geology and Disaster

K-Pg Mass extinction

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K-Pg Mass extinction

One of the ‘Five Big’ mass extinctions occurred at 66 million years ago at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, marked by the extinction of dinosaurs and shallow marine organisms (Smit et al. 1980; Schulte et al. 2010.

K-Pg mass extinction
K-Pg mass extinction

Only 12% of the land-dwelling forms but 90% of species in the freshwater assemblage survived, while marine plankton diversity and marine productivity decreased significantly except for the benthic foraminiferal species.

An asteroid hit of about 12 Km diameter in size at Chixulab, Mexico is the widely known cause of the K-Pg mass extinction.

K-Pg mass extinction

However recent finding shows that Plume volcanism might be one of the causes of K-Pg mass extinction. Hence, to find the robust cause of the mechanism is the recent need for the community and the researchers of the modern world.

K-Pg mass extinction.