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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Two scientists search for geologic fingerprints that can explain what killed the dinosaurs. They think the truth must be hidden in the rocks, but the truth isn't what they had expected.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Analog, 1989
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2005

53 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [23 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [30 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [10 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [160 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [10 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [72 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [80 KB] , hiebook (KML) [30 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [33 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [8 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [10 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [38 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [17 KB]
Words: 2910
Reading time: 8-11 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

It was all Washerman's fault. He got me into this; he and his rock samples. I'm a physicist, with some tricks up my sleeve for counting metal atoms. Ask me about single-atom laser photo ionization spectroscopy and I can tell you how to get isotopic concentrations and ratios to three significant figures. Ask me about rocks, and I can tell you how to turn them into samples for my handy-dandy laser photo ionization spectrometer. Beyond that, all I know is that most of them are grey and have names I never bothered to learn.

I asked Washerman about rocks. He turned his bleary red eyes to me and picked up one. "This is the boundary clay," he said. "It was laid down at the very end of the Cretaceous, about the time the dinosaurs died out. On top of it are Tertiary sediments. This is a nice little sample," he added, holding up a chunk of rock that looked to me just like any other rock. "I don't know the exact sedimentation rate, but I'd guess that in this two-centimeter thickness we've got the record of a few thousand years." He was in a particularly morose mood, so he added, "Same as from the pyramids to the space age. That's what will be left of us in 65 million years."