PrepTest 31, Section 3, Question 17
Selena: Asteroid impact on the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs by raising vast clouds of dust, thus blocking the Sun's rays and cooling the planet beyond the capacity of the dinosaurs, or perhaps the vegetation that supported them, to adapt. A worldwide dust layer provides evidence of asteroid impact at approximately the correct time, and a huge crater exists on the edge of the Yucat�n peninsula in Mexico.
Selena: Asteroid impact on the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs by raising vast clouds of dust, thus blocking the Sun's rays and cooling the planet beyond the capacity of the dinosaurs, or perhaps the vegetation that supported them, to adapt. A worldwide dust layer provides evidence of asteroid impact at approximately the correct time, and a huge crater exists on the edge of the Yucat�n peninsula in Mexico.
Trent: That asteroid crater is not large enough for the requisite amount of dust to have been produced. Besides, the extinction of dinosaur species took many years, not just one or two. So the extinctions must have been due not to asteroid impact on the Earth but to some other kind of cause.
Selena: Asteroid impact on the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs by raising vast clouds of dust, thus blocking the Sun's rays and cooling the planet beyond the capacity of the dinosaurs, or perhaps the vegetation that supported them, to adapt. A worldwide dust layer provides evidence of asteroid impact at approximately the correct time, and a huge crater exists on the edge of the Yucat�n peninsula in Mexico.
Trent: That asteroid crater is not large enough for the requisite amount of dust to have been produced. Besides, the extinction of dinosaur species took many years, not just one or two. So the extinctions must have been due not to asteroid impact on the Earth but to some other kind of cause.
Selena: Asteroid impact on the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs by raising vast clouds of dust, thus blocking the Sun's rays and cooling the planet beyond the capacity of the dinosaurs, or perhaps the vegetation that supported them, to adapt. A worldwide dust layer provides evidence of asteroid impact at approximately the correct time, and a huge crater exists on the edge of the Yucat�n peninsula in Mexico.
Trent's argument assumes that
any collision of an asteroid with the Earth would have occurred on a land area rather than an ocean
dinosaurs in the neighborhood of an asteroid impact but not within the zone of direct impact would have survived such an impact
any event that takes place over a long period of time has many different kinds of causes
dust from the impact of an asteroid on the Earth would not have had any cooling effect on the climate
no more than one large asteroid struck the Earth during the period when the dinosaurs were becoming extinct
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