I think that, for O2 consumption, the K-T event was dwarfed by the Siberian Traps--a million years of volcanically roasted coal fields the size of Continental Europe. But in neither case was there enough carbon to significantly dent atmospheric O2. What happened to the combustion products? Where's all the CO2? I bet the combustion products are ocean water. We grazed a gas giant or somehow took a big gulp of extraterrestrial H2. "Calculations of sea water temperature from δ18O measurements indicate that at its peak, the earth underwent lethally hot global warming, in which equatorial ocean temperatures exceeded 40 °C (about 105 °F)." Humidity is vastly better than CO2 for trapping heat. --rwg On 2016-01-18 19:33, Henry Baker wrote:
FYI -- Time to bring back my theory that pre-K-T oxygen levels were far in excess of today's oxygen levels. Animals this large wouldn't be able to survive in today's <21% O2 levels; they would feel like we do today at 20,000' altitudes (~50% O2 saturation levels). These excessively high levels of O2 pre-K-T were created by a billion+ years of plant-life CO2 reduction, leading to *huge* amounts of surface carbon in the form of coal/oil/etc.
The K-T event 66 million years ago set of a planet-wide fire that burned for years and years, and finally brought atmospheric O2 levels down to nearly today's levels. (Tiny models of such fires burn today in West Virginia, some of which have been burning for >100 years.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous–Paleogene_extinction_event
----- In Argentina, Rancher’s Discovery Leads to Largest Titanosaur
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/science/titanosaur-argentina-american-muse...
"These herbivores lived about 100 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous Period, on all continents, including Antarctica. They seemed especially plentiful in southern lands."
"The Patagonian skeleton was not an easy fit in its New York home. At 122 feet in length, it was a bit too long for the gallery. Part of its 39-foot-long neck extends through an opening in a wall toward the elevator banks, as if to welcome visitors to the fossil floors."
"This titanosaur was a young adult, gender undetermined. Its appetite for all kinds of vegetation must have been prodigious. Based on bone sizes, researchers estimated that this individual weighed 70 tons as much as 10 African elephants, the heaviest land animals today. Think of its possible heft if it were fully grown."
"The size and distinctive shape of an *eight-foot femur* of one specimen astonished scientists."