Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Colloquium

Monday, January 14, 2019 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Brian Toon, LASP, CU Boulder

"Dead Dinosaurs and Nuclear Wars"

A Pretty Image from the Talk

Abstract:

Sixty-six million years ago, a mountain-sized chunk of rock, traveling at more than 10 times the muzzle velocity of an assault rifle, slammed into the sea covering what is now the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the 5th of the Earth’s great mass extinctions occurred. Many of the same phenomena which killed the dinosaurs may occur if there is a nuclear war.

Here I describe how the dinosaurs died and the possible consequences of small and large nuclear wars. Unfortunately at present, we are not capable of stopping an asteroid from hitting the planet. It remains to be seen if we can prevent a nuclear conflict.

 

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