From Nick Semenza:

Re: Report: dinos took repeat pounding before final exit (Oct. 26): I recently wrote a paper on this very subject and came across the Shiva Hypothesis from Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University. He suggests, also, that there was a multiple impact event. Documented additional impacts, though smaller, were the following (www.unb.ca):



Chatterjee agrees that the Chicxulub impact even happened 300, 000 years before the K-T mass extinction and claims the real impact was from a 40 km wide object off the west coast of India leaving a 400-600 km wide crater and possible accelerating mid oceanic rifting in the area. This hypothesis has only been presented as an abstract and never published for peer review which makes me question his hypothesis. It’s still an interesting idea though. His theory makes far more sense than the nemesis theory proposed by Hut in 1984. [Ref.: Chatterjee, S. (2003). The Shiva Crater: implications for Deccan volcanism, India-Seychelles rifting, dinosaur extinction, and petroleum entrapment at the K T boundary. Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, 35(6), 168.]

Nick Semenza
Geology undergrad student, ISU