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Expert on mass extinction lectures April 13 4:15 p.m., April 5, 2004--Was the Earth struck by a large space object millions of years ago, causing the extinction of more than three-quarters of all species on the planet? The evolution of that ideafrom hypothesis to theorywill be discussed by visiting scholar Alessandro Montanari at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 13, in 004 Kirkbride Hall. Montanari, director of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco, Italy, will chronicle the history of the acceptance of the hypothesis and its escalation to the status of theory, including his role in the process beginning as a graduate student at the University of California Berkeley, working with Luis Alvarez and his son, Walter Alvarez. In 1980, the Alvarez research group proposed that 65 million years ago an extraterrestrial object the size of Mount Everest fell from the sky and caused a global catastrophe. It resulted in one of the greatest mass extinctions on the planet, including the loss of the dinosaurs. At the time the hypothesis was first published, it was very controversial, according to Billy Price Glass, a University of Delaware geology professor who is conducting his own studies of a projectile that slammed into what is now the Chesapeake Bay about 35 million years ago. Glass said acceptance of the Alvarez groups idea has resulted in a reassessment of the long-standing paradigm of a uniformitarian and gradualistic evolution of the Earth and in a neo-catastrophic vision of the natural processes at work within our planet in response to extraterrestrial events. The talk is free and open to the public. Montanaris visit is supported by the Center for International Studies and the Office of Undergraduate Studies. To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |