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The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs
by Gerta Keller
Book Reviewed by:The story behind Dr. Gerta Keller's world-shattering scientific discovery that dinosaur extinction was NOT caused by asteroid impact, but rather by volcanic eruptions on the Indian peninsula, a discovery that highlights today's existential threat of greenhouse gasses and climate change—and one that sparked an all-out war waged by the scientific establishment.
Part scientific detective story, part personal odyssey, The Last Extinction is the definitive account of a radical theory that has reshaped how we understand our planet's past and, as we face the possibility of a sixth extinction, how we might survive its future.
For decades, the dominant theory held that an asteroid impact caused the dinosaurs' extinction. But Princeton Geologist Dr. Gerta Keller followed the evidence to the truth: Deccan volcanism, a series of massive volcanic eruptions in India, triggered a long-term climate catastrophe and Earth's fifth mass extinction. Her findings upended the filed and ignited a bitter feud in modern science—what became known as the "Dinosaur Wars."
Raised in poverty on a Swiss farm and told she could never be a scientist, Keller defied expectations, earning her PhD at Stanford and battling her way into the highest ranks of Geology, eventually becoming a Professor of Paleontology and Geology at Princeton University. Her refusal to back down in the face of ridicule, sabotage, and sexism makes her story as thrilling as her science, which offers urgent insight into today's climate crisis: Sustained planetary upheaval—not a single cataclysmic event—can plunge the planet into an age of death.
The Nastiest Feud in Science
Introduced as "the well-known sedimentologist George Keller," I walked onto the stage to snickering laughter. At the podium I adjusted the micro-phone, took a deep breath, and said, "I am Gerta Keller, the paleontologist." More laughter came from the sea of grinning male faces before me. The auditorium was packed to overflow, with people standing in the back and along the walls. These were the heavy hitters of my field—the world's leading geochemists, geophysicists, paleontologists, and other scientists—gathered at the prestigious 1988 Snowbird II conference on Impacts and Mass Extinctions. I quieted the voice in my mind that told me I didn't belong here; my work would speak for itself.
The title of my presentation flashed across the screen behind me: Chicxulub—the Non¬Smoking Gun: Impact Crater Predates K–P Boundary, and the laughter turned to murmurs of consternation and scorn. I began my talk, methodically walking the audience...
It turns out that at the time—the early to mid-1980s—what is now known as the "impact theory" was widespread but far from confirmed, as Gerta Keller details in The Last Extinction. Keller's own research, itself centered on volcanic phenomena, falls in favor of the Deccan volcanism theory, first proposed by paleontologist Dewey McLean in 1978, which states that volcanoes in the area now known as the Deccan Traps in India produced greenhouse gases over a period of time, causing extreme warming. The book details her research methods, including sediment analysis to date asteroid impacts alongside the extinction of life forms, and collaboration with a chemist to achieve more complete information about the iridium presence that bolstered the Alvarez theory. The Last Extinction is educational in more ways than one. Readers of this book may find themselves most interested not in the hard science or the personal details of Keller's life, but in her (albeit sometimes unexamined) account of the social-scientific machine...continued
Full Review
(1322 words)
(Reviewed by Elisabeth Cook).
.jpg "Books about science and systems")
In The Last Extinction, geologist Gerta Keller summarizes research supporting her theory of Deccan volcanism (which suggests the dinosaurs were not killed off in conditions produced by an asteroid but rather by a period of sustained volcanic activity) and offers a view of the patriarchal and other hierarchical systems she encountered over the years in seeking a platform for her non-mainstream work. Many more scientists and journalists have published books focusing on how significant science concerning human health, nature, and the universe interacts with (and is often compromised by) scientific media and other social phenomena. Below are just a few. These books dig deeper into solutions to the informational and environmental concerns raised...
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