Transcript Crater Impacts

Crater Impacts
D. Crowley, 2009
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Crater Impacts
 To make a prediction, and investigate this fairly
Adaptation
 How was a Tyrannosaurus Rex adapted to help it survive?
Adaptation
 T-Rex adaptations…
Large head
Body with hollow bones
Large eyes
Long stiff tail
Large powerful jaws
with long, sharp,
conical teeth
Long powerful legs
Two-fingered hands with sharp claws
Clawed feet
Adaptation
 How was a Triceratops adapted to help it survive?
Adaptation
 Triceratops adaptations…
Forward pointing horns
Bulky, barrelshaped body
Short tail
Short, wide snout
horn
Toothless beak
Short legs
Cheek protuberance
5-toed feet
Extinction
 What do you think caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?
 Was there an atmospheric / climatic change which the
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dinosaurs could not adapt to quickly enough?
Did something happen to the plants so the herbivores had
nothing to eat, and the food chains broke down?
Did disease wipe them out?
Did an asteroid hit the Earth?
We chemicals leached from the soil which poisoned the
dinosaurs?
Dinosaur Extinction
 Most scientists believe large scale climate change was the cause
of the dinosaur extinction – possibly caused by a giant meteorite
crashing into the Earth
 As the environment changed the dinosaurs were unable to adapt,
and died out
Dinosaurs & Mammals
 Why is it that cataclysmic event which caused the dinosaurs to
become extinct did not also cause the extinction of mammals
(which were also around at the time)?
Dinosaurs & Mammals
 Most scientists believe large scale climate change was the cause
of the dinosaur extinction – possibly caused by a giant meteorite
crashing into the Earth
 As the environment changed the dinosaurs were unable to adapt,
and died out
 As the Earth finally began to warm up
again mammals, which are able to
regulate their own body temperature,
became dominant
Evidence
 What evidence is there for a giant crater?!
Clearwater Lakes (Canada)
Arizona (USA)
Chicxulub (Mexico)
Wolf Creek (Australia)
Aorounga (Chad)
Manicouagan (Canada)
Craters
 Do these craters only happen on Earth?
 Lunar craters also exist…
Crater Size
 What affects the size of a crater?
 Craters have varying sizes (from dust particles to kilometers
across), due to:  Composition of rock (rocky / metallic / carbon based)
 Speed of impact
 Angle of impact
 Mass of material impacting
Theory
 What object could you use as a meteorite?
 What will you use to represent the surface of the Earth?
 How can you make this a fair test?
Theory
 Consider the following:  What are you going to investigate?
 How many times will you have to do it?
 How will you record your results?
 How will you make it safe?
 What do you think you will find out?
 What are you going to record?
 When you have considered these points produce a results table…
Results
 Produce a results table, specific to your experiment
Meteorite Strike
 Collect your data – look for patterns as you collect your data to
check you are on the right path…
Results
 What do your results show?
 Graph your results
 Have your produced good evidence to support your original ideas,
or have you discovered something new?
Y axis - what was change by the
experiment
Chart title
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
25
50
75
X axis - what you changed
100
125