Origins of the asteroid-impact hypothesis
DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.4764
The April 2021 Back Scatter, “Iridium marks the spot” (page 64 ), should have given credit to Luis Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, and their team, who proposed the hypothesis that an asteroid impact caused the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, and cited their publication. 1
I was present at conferences where the Alvarez team was ridiculed and insulted because a physicist (Luis Alvarez) dared to intrude on geologists’ turf. The team did meticulous research and global checking of the iridium anomaly at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary (or Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary, as it was known in the 1980s). I am glad that that careful work has been independently verified many times over. But the work mentioned in the Back Scatter is not new news, just further confirmation. Please give credit where it is due.
References
1. L. W. Alvarez et al., Science 208, 1095 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.208.4448.1095
More about the authors
Nicholas R. White, (nick.white@ieee.org) Albion Systems, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.
