The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 06, 1997, Page 7, Image 7

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    asteroid killed dinosaurs I
By Jm Goodwin
Staff Reporter
David Watkins has discovered that
one who digs deep enough just may
find what he’s looking for.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln geology professor returned in
February from a five-week interna
tional drilling expedition off the east
coast of Florida. The venture yielded
evidence that Watkins said is proof the
impact of a six- to 10-mile wide as
teroid 65 million years ago obliterated
the dinosaurs.
Watkins — along with UNL ge
ologist Mary Anne Holmes and UNL
graduate student Jean Self-Trail —
found the proof 300 feet below the
earth’s crust in a thin, brownish-yel
low layer thought to contain asteroid
particles.
Above the particles is a two-inch
layer of gray clay, signalling a nearly
dead world, Watkins said.
Smatterings of evidence alluding
to the theory’s accuracy have
abounded for decades. However, the
expedition’s discoveries prove the
theory’s truth, Watkins said.
“A geological record is like a
bode,” he explained. “Everywhere you
go there is a book, but most of the
pages are gone. This is the case where
all the pages are in the book, in the
right order and undisturbed. There is
no doubt.”
Scientists discovered the asteroid
particles about 1,000 miles northeast
from the asteroid’s pdnt of impact on
the northwestern fringe of Mexico’s
Yucatan Peninsula.
And though there are still skeptics
of the asteroid-impact theory, the evi
dence of a collision Watkins found
during his expedition disproves other
theories about the dinosaurs’ demise,
he said.
Watkins said the cataclysm began
even before the collision. The aster
oid is thought to have trailed a shock
wave created by its 60,000-mph en
trance into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The shock wave sent tidal waves roll
ing over lands up to 500 miles away,
Watkins said.
The asteroid then met rock, in
stantly vaporizing and ejecting rock
particles almost eight miles out of the
Earth’s atmosphere, Watkins said.
The rock froze, showering the
Earth with glass dust. The dust landed
on glass pebbles thought to be ocean
floor material melted by friction
caused by the asteroid’s impact.
The event almost instantaneously
wiped clean the slate of biological ex
istence, Watkins said.
“This event reset the clock and
everything started out differently,” he
said. “Werre talking about two totally
different systems and casts of players.
“If you exploded every nuclear de
vice on Earth at (Mice, the force of the
asteroid’s impact would be 10 times
more intense,” Watkins said. “It would
have been hellacious.”
Lancaster’s job market evaluated
By Lori Robison
Staff Reporter
Over the next five years, more than
5,777 new jobs will be created in Lin
coln/Lancaster County, according to
a survey conducted for the Lincoln
Partnership for Economic Develop
ment. ij
However, data collected through
the Fall 1996 study indicate that many
of those jobs will be for technicians,
salespeople and office/clerical staff—
jobs tliat typically do not require a
four-year degree.
The survey was requested by the
LPED to evaluate the present and fu
ture job market in Lincoln/Lancaster
County. The study targeted businesses
that earn more than half their revenues
outside the area as well as those who
have more than 100 employees, project
executive Terri Parsons said. However,
many smaller firms — which make
up 92 percent of all the local busi
nesses — were also contacted.
The data collected by the Gallup
Organization are currently being re
viewed by the Workforce Development
Council, a division of the LPED. The
council’s goal will be to develop a rap
port with and collaboration among the
private and public business sectors as
well as potential employees.
But Parson said that while 70 per
cent of job openings nationwide do not
require a bachelor degree, four-year
degrees are far from becoming obso
lete.
Development, interpersonal and
computer skills will always be impor
tant aspects of any job, she said.
With area businesses collaborating
with the education community as well
as those in the labor market, she said,
all aspects of the community will reap
the benefits.
“It really is a win-\yin-win situa
tion,” Parson said.
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Ask our Representative about special opportunities for those students who speak Portuguese.
WTO SESSION MU: Thnrsday, March 13 TIME: 7 pn LOCATION: Wick Center
FOR MORI INTO, CONTACT: Marsha Phelps (*02) 472-1452
Also visit us at www.careermosaic.com/cm/wdw/wdw1.html
I Co. I
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Netscape software is available in Windows and Macintosh versions.
What do you think of our
Hepartment of Athletics? ,
commitment to equity? academic integrity?
fiscal integrity? rules compliance?
Open Forum
Wed., March 19,
11:30-1 p.m. East Union.
All students, faculty and staff are welcome
to give input to the NCAA certification study.
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