If asteroids repeatedly pummel the same spots, the beating may affect the flow of molten rock inside the earth, which would affect the degree to which continents drift around the earth's surface. Lumpy masses within the earth cause gravitational interactions with approaching asteroids that force them into specific orbits before impact. The impact craters that form a halo-like swath across the Northern Hemisphere were the result of a single cluster of meteors striking the earth. No similar pattern of impact craters was created during any other period of the earth's history.
The conventional view is that asteroids strike the earth at random locations, thereby randomly affecting various aspects of the earth' s evolution. One iconoclastic geophysicist claims instead that asteroids have struck the earth through a highly organized natural process. Cited as evidence is the unusual pattern of impact craters that form a halo-like swath across the Northern Hemisphere. There is a consensus that these craters appeared at the end of the Cretaceous period, followed by a mass extinction of much land and ocean life.
Which one of the following, if true, would most help to support the iconoclastic geophysicist's claim?