T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

Rating:
Summary: A 65-million-year-old Murder Mystery
Review: This is the story of the discovery of why the dinosaurs -- and so many other creatures -- went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Walter Alvarez was a young geologist who discovered an "iridium anomaly" in a deposit at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary that strongly suggested that an extraterrestrial event of massive effect had happened then. He was joined by his father, Luis Alvarez, a physicist at Berkeley, in the pursuit of the significance of this finding. It seems hard to believe, but most geologists were reluctant to posit anything like a meteor strike as being a significant factor in Earth's history, preferring to explain everything by invoking gradual processes.

Yet it became clear early on that something big had happened, and various candidates were mooted, such as a nearby supernova, or a companion star to the sun periodically throwing comet orbits out of whack. This book is the story of how geologists, chemists, physicists and others over more than a decade closed in on the solution -- a massive impact in the Yucatan Penninsula whose after-effects shrouded the Earth in darkness for many months -- starting with that original discovery back in 1977. This is a reasonably lightweight account, but with enough details to give the reader a good idea of the technical problems without descending into jargon. When you are done you don't really know much more geology than when you started, but you might wish you had become a geologist, because the field trips sure seem like a lot of fun.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent throughout, but somewhat difficult for the novice.
Review: This review is based upon having listened to the book-on-tape version: I found it an excellent and exciting exploration into one of the extinction theories concerning the dinosaurs. Mr. Alvarez paints an intense scene in the first side of a two cassette story as he describes in detail exactly what happened on the fateful day. Then he sets forward, in the remaining three sides, to giving all of the data which led to those conclusions. Obviously, this tends to become tedious and I found myself drifting into my own thoughts. However, his proof and conclusions are irrefutable and very interesting overall.

Rating:
Summary: Alvarez commands a mind of genius proportions
Review: Walter Alvarez commands a mind of genius proportions, and thankfully he put that mind to the task of producing a wonderful book about the thrill of scientific discovery. The book explains how the scientist looks for patterns in nature that allow generalizing and unifying conclusions to be drawn.

Through our joint geological research in the Italian Apennine Mountains, I've had the very good fortune of getting to know Walter. Despite his being one of the world's leading and best known scientists Walter is an extremely friendly and modest person. In this regard he reminds me of Albert Einstein.

Shortly after visiting Walter in Berkeley last year I mentioned that Spielberg might be interested in a movie relating to the "impact" subject. I didn't know at the time that not one but TWO movies were already in production on this subject - one by Speilberg!

T.rex will inspire and lead many young people to choose careers in geoscience. In considering environmental issues and geosocietal hazards I believe this - inspiring young people - will prove to be the most important long-term outcome of Walter's book: T.rex and the Crater of Doom.

Rating:
Summary: Murderous asteroid causes sudden death of the dinosaurs!
Review: Walter Alvarez has done a great job of describing the solution to a great scientific mystery: what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? It is now well known that a large meteor hit the earth 65 million years ago creating a monstrous explosion and dust cloud, blocking the earth from the sun. The proof that was given to us by nature was the Chixculub Crater, created by the asteroid 65 million years before. He lost me a third of the way into the book, as he started to talk of the chemical bases of the iridium and how different machines used certain chemicals to trace other chemicals. It was not that I disliked the book. The pictures were stunning and I thought that for the most part the book was really intriguing from a scientific point of view. The reason for the three points taken off was that, perhaps, in order to make the chronical book length, he combined difficult information with more interesting and less difficult information. I think he was aiming at too wide an audience. Was he talking to high school students? College students? Overall I really enjoyed the book and I recommend this book to anyone over the age of sixteen. It is most certainly a book for someone who has studied some biology, chemistry, or geology in school.