Geological Cataclysm - The Chixulub meteor impact

When I was growing up, everyone knew about dinosaurs and their sudden extinction.  No archaeologist or geologist could come up with a valid explanation of what caused that extinction.  All anyone knew was that the Mesozoic Era abruptly ended and the Cenozoic Era ("The Age of Mammals") began.  Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrate for 135 million years - and then one day, pffft... they were gone.  But why???

Geological Cataclysms

I'm interested in cataclysmic geological events in history.  I find it fascinating how scientists manage to gather data from a handful of clues available in the current day and make a solid case for an epic event that almost defies imagination.

I will be posting about three of them in the near future, and those are the Chixulub asteroid impact, the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake, and the Missoula Floods.  Each of these events is absolutely fascinating.  More fascinating is the effort and research that went into convincing a dubious scientific community that these events occurred.