Séminaire
The evidence on the mass-extinctions at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPgB) 65.9 million years (my) ago seem to overwhelmingly points to environmental changes induced by the Chicxulub impact on the Yucatan peninsula (Schulte, 2010). However, at least three other impacts of similar size must have taken place in the Phanerozoic, yet after 30 years of intensive search, a general connection between impact and extinction remains largely speculative. Moreover, at the Permian-Triassic, (and at Triassic-Jurassic boundary CAMP) Siberian traps eruptions are the favorite cause of the “Mother of all Mass-extinctions”. So what is so special about the Chicxulub impact? Or are the mass-extinctions due to a fortuitous concurrence of Deccan traps volcanism, sealevel changes and multiple impacts? Both extinction mechanisms will be weighed against each other, and against the detailed global stratigraphic record.