A team of scientists led by the University of California, Berkeley, and including researchers from China and France believe that the Chicxulub impact 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs may also have triggered "massive volcanism" known as the Deccan Traps of India.

The eruption released 1.5 million cubic kilometers of lava - or enough to coat one-fourth of the United States' land area in two kilometers worth of rock that created the vast Western Ghats mountains of southwestern India.

Although previous work has linked the two cataclysmic events, the new models are the first to suggest that the impact directly and instantly set in motion this phase of flood volcanism, creating a double blow for life on Earth.