It was he who first came up with the giant-wave explanation for the layers of sediment between the glass globules and the iridium.

ECONOMIST: Some new ideas about why life on Earth has periodic crises

The conventional explanation for this arrangement is that the glass fell to Earth first, then giant waves caused by the impact covered them with sediment, then iridium-containing dust settled out of the atmosphere over the course of a few weeks and formed the clay.

ECONOMIST: Some new ideas about why life on Earth has periodic crises