In 1980 the geologist Walter Alvarez, his father, the physicist Luis Alvarez, and colleagues reported an unusually high level of iridium, an element rare in the Earth's crust but common in asteroids, in a thin clay layer in Gubbio, Italy, laid down exactly at the time the dinosaurs died out. They proposed that an asteroid roughly 10 km wide had struck the Earth. The theory was resisted at first but confirmed in 1991 when the buried Chicxulub crater was linked to the impact. It changed the study of mass extinctions.
Before and after
- 1980Establishment of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve
- 1980Founding of Southern African Development Community
- c. 1980sRise of unification of Moldova and Romania
- 1980Rise of Haqqani network
- 1980Alvarez team proposes an asteroid impact killed the dinosaurs
- 19801980 becomes the warmest year on record
- 21 February 1980Birth of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
- 22 February 1980The Miracle on Ice
- March 1980Founding of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
More in Science & technology
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 1971Email
- 1973Mobile phone
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- August 2003Discovery of moscovium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.