The KT Boundary

23 Jun, 2005 550 Earth sciences and geology

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the KT Boundary. Across the entire planet, where it hasn’t been eroded or destroyed in land movements, there is a thin grey line. In Italy it is 1 cm thick, in America it stretches to three centimetres, but it is all the same thin grey line laid into the rock some 65 million years ago and it bears witness to a cataclysmic event experienced only once in Earth’s history. It is called the KT Boundary and geologists believe it is the clue to the death of the dinosaurs and the ultimate reason why mammals and humans inherited the Earth.But exactly what did happen 65 million years ago? How was this extraordinary line created across the Earth and does it really hold the key to the death of the dinosaurs?

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Guests

  • Simon Kelley No other episodes
    Head of Department in the Department of Earth Sciences, Open University
  • Jane Francis 8 episodes
    Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds
  • Mike Benton 4 episodes
    Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol

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Programme ID: p003k9d0

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9d0

Auto-category: 551.7 (Historical geology; stratigraphy)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello. Across the entire planet, where it hasn't been eroded or destroyed in land movements, there's a thin grey line of clay.