@inbook{42,
  author = {G. Keller and T. Adatte},
  title = {Nature of the KTB Controversy},
  abstract = {<p>One of the liveliest debates among scientists concerns potential causes of catastrophic extinction events, but none have garnered the imagination of scientists and public alike as the Cretaceous{\textendash}Tertiary boundary (KTB) mass extinction including the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Over three decades ago the discovery of anomalous concentrations of iridium in a thin clay layer between Cretaceous limestones and Tertiary claystones led Alvarez and collaborators to propose that a large meteorite crashed into Earth and caused the KTB mass extinction (Alvarez et al., 1980). Because iridium is rare on Earth{\textquoteright}s surface, relatively common deep in Earth{\textquoteright}s interior where it can surface via volcanic eruptions, but most abundant in some meteorites, this hypothesis rapidly gained support. With the discovery of the 175 km diameter Chicxulub impact crater on Yucata{\textasciiacute}n in 1991 (Hildebrand et al., 1991), followed by discoveries of impact glass spherule ejecta throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and North America in stratigraphic proximity of the KTB mass extinction (Izett et al., l99l; Swisher et al., l992; Smit et al., 1992) there seemed little doubt that the smoking gun had been found in the Chicxulub impact crater and that the impact-kill hypothesis was all but proven. For many scientists, the impact-kill hypothesis became a Eureka moment{\textemdash}a beautiful theory that could be expanded with many corollaries to account for virtually all observations. It was reconfirmed by 41 scientists in a recent Science article (Schulte et al., 2010) and expressed well by Birger Schmitz (2011) in his review of Ted Nield{\textquoteright}s new book Incoming{\textemdash}Or why we should stop worrying and learn to love the meteorite. Nield (2011) writes a riveting account on meteorites that begins with fascinating historical facts, heresy, and beliefs through the ages before leading into the scientific geological account of the meteorite theory and an objective treatment of the controversy based on evidence inconsistent with this theory. There is nothing worse than destroying a beautiful theory with facts. Schmitz takes issue with Nield{\textquoteright}s suggestion that doubters like Gerta Keller and her small team may have a point{\textemdash}the impact harmed nature, but the mass extinction had more varied causes. Schmitz considers this a compromise that belongs in politics, not in science. He goes on to state that he started his career in the 1980s as a non-believer of the impact theory, but has now seen the KTB clay layer in over 50 localities {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}where the iridium enriched layer always occurs exactly at the level at which the microscopic foraminifera typical of Cretaceous oceans disappear almost completely . . . The precise coincidence of these two events is so compelling that it is difficult to understand how anyone can doubt the direct relationship between them{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} (Schmitz, 2011).\&nbsp; <a href="https://geoweb.princeton.edu/research/keller/pubs/Keller_and_Adatte_2011_SEPM_100_Preface.pdf" target="_blank">PDF</a></p>
},
  year = {2011},
  journal = {The End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction and the Chicxulub Impact in Texas},
  volume = {No. 100},
  edition = {SEPM, Special Publication},
  issn = {978-1-56576-308-1},
  language = {eng},
}