Has anyone else seen the History Channel special about Hypercanes?

Question

I did. Very interesting.

How many of you believe that the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event could have been exacerbated by roaming Hypercanes?

I'll be honest - I thought at first that it was more global warming hype, but I gotta tell you, as the special went on, it raised some interesting points. One of particular interest was the ability of a Hypercane to eject water vapor directly into the ozone layer causing it to deteriorate.

Opinions???

Answer 1

I saw the show, and I think that the "hypercane" theory, though somewhat farfetched, is very plausible.  To me, it seems to pull the other various theories regarding the extinction of the dinosaurs and consolidate them into one idea.  For instance:

1) It uses the much agreed upon belief that an asteroid hit the Earth just off the Yucatan peninsula, thereby leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs,

2) It vies with the scientifically known fact that if such an impact did occur, that it would have raised the temperature of the water into which it landed to extreme levels because of its collision with the ocean floor,

3) It takes into account the fact that animals that naturally burrowed in the ground or lived underwater (i.e. turtles, alligators, fish, frogs, etc.) would have been shielded by the Sun's deadly ultraviolet radition.  And wouldn't you know it, these are the exact types of animals that survived the Cretaceous - Tertiary extinction, and

4) It lends itself to the belief that carbon dioxide levels would have been geratly increased in the atmosphere, thereby allowing much of the vegetation (except for that which could not survive at a heightened global temperature) to survive, which can be proven by the many varying forms of plants, trees, and lichens that we know existed long before the dinosaurs became extinct.

The only problem I have with the "hypercane theory" is that basically all of these anomalies could have also occured if the Sun had been blotted out for years due to a worldwide blanket of dust "kicked up" into the atmosphere because of the asteroid's collision, a theory that happens to be the most the most widely accepted.

I know this didn't really answer your question, but yes, I beleive that hypercanes may have caused the extinction of the dinsaurs.  However, I doubt that there will ever be any conclusive theory simply because we can only speculate.  If we could go back in time, though....

Answer 2

eeek!! havent seen the show! sounds interesting though... i dont deserve best answer or the 2 points...

Answer 3

Offhand I don't think so.  The ozone is fairly high up in the stratosphere, well above the tropopause.  The stratosphere by nature is very stable, thus very little tropospheric air makes any real progress into the stratosphere, and even that requires strong rising air currents from below.  And the very cold temperatures that are normally found in the stratosphere would severely limit the amount of water vapor.