Gary sent in this one – https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/11/04/wyoming-couple-finds-forest-of-gigantic-60-million-year-old-petrified-trees … a couple in the US, building an RV park, have dug up a massive 35 feet section of a petrified tree which appears to be part of a buried 60 million years old prehistoric forest of Matasequouia [a type of redwood]. These can grow as tall as 160 feet and there were a lot of them in Wyoming in the deep past. However, I scratched my head as it distinctly says 60 million years ago, yet later we are told measequouia trees thrived during the Eocene – a more recent geological period. In fact, Wyoming is well known for its Eocene rocks and fossils – such as the Fossil Butte National Monument. Leaves from giant magnolia trees have also turned up – and they also thrived in the Eocene.
At https://phys.org/news/2023-10-asteroid-year-winter-dinosaurs.html … this time are really back to around 60 milion years ago. The subject is the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs. No mention of landscape fires or huge tidal waves but we do learn that dust and debris was sweeped up into the atmosphere after the strike. It blocked sunlight and prevented photosynthesis. The dust, it seems, had an origin in pulverised rock, and remained in the atmsphere for up to 15 years. This idea was actually all part of the Alvarez model but experts, long ago, disapproved ot the idea as it was not provable. The Alvarez team are not alone – and the new study seems to have set the cat amongst the pigeons.
The full article can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01290-4 …