Re: (Fwd) Gravity

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Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 13:04:56 -0500
To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk
From: bivalve@email.unc.edu (David Campbell)
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Gravity
Status: O

I saw a paper late last spring in one of the German  paleontological/
stratigraphical journals (library browsing) which claimed that large
metazoans appeared in the Vendian because gravity had been too high before
then, I think using a shrinking Earth hypothesis.  Odd gravitational ideas
aren't limited to the general public!  I seem to recall a geophysicist
saying that rotational inertia problems pretty much rule out drastic
changes in the Earth's diameter.
        As far as K/T causes go, the Deccan Traps began erupting well
before the boundary (a magnetozone or so earlier) and do not seem to have
affected the local fauna very much, based on fossils from the intertrappan
beds.  However, it probably did stress the environment and may have been a
contributing factor.  There doesn't seem to be any agreement on where any
antipodal effects of Chixulub are now (Deccan or seafloor or subducted
under the Himalayas).  The planktic microfossil record, which is probably
the most complete, strongly supports a sudden catastrophe.

David Campbell   "old seashells"
Department of Geology
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315
bivalve@email.unc.edu