Did THIS wipe out the dinosaurs? It’s not what you think

Geologists refer to the result as the Deccan Traps.

The two independent teams used state-of-the-art geo-dating techniques to try and establish how much of the lava detected within the Western Ghats erupted before the K-Pg extinction, and how much afterwards.

Their findings suggest the widely accepted theory that the asteroid, called the Chicxulub Impact after the region of modern day Mexico where the 10 kilometre crater is located, was the sole cause of the massive catastrophe, known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) event, which resulted in the extinction of 75 percent of all living creatures, including all of the dinosaurs.

One group, led by Courtney Sprain, a geoscientist from the University of Liverpool, concluded that 75 percent of the lava erupted after the K-Pg boundary, reducing the chances of it being the main cause of the extinction.