Are the Deccan Traps and the KT asteroid impact related?

Yes.
But the flood basalts were raising the area 66 mya - Check out 'reunion hotspot' and 'shiva crater'.
They fizzled out by 63mya - There's no reason to believe chicxulub is connected, it's certainly not the origin - 2 mill-yrs late.

The SHiva Crater was about in the same time as the initiation of the deep mantle plume that defined the source of the Reunion hotspot. Looking at dates of zircons on the tholleitic rocks of the Deccans helps conform the age theory . However, much arguing is still going on

It a minority held opinion right now and its not my area of interest but there is one paleontologist at Princeton whose been trying to re-revise the K/T boundary argument wrt the death of dinosaurs.
She states that, with many key dinosaur species being wiped out waay before Chixclub, another event is needed and the populations of dinosaurs that were dying out and rapidly evolving (due to environmental stresses?) sort of coalesces around 75 to 68 mya. The deccans have always been dated starting about 69mya . but methods of dating can vary and comparisons between sed dates, magnetics dates, and isotope dates can have a big error bar. SO, that's my story and Im stickin to it till the newer stuff gets published in GSA. BTW, the SHiva Crater hypothesis is an idea of one guy and his students. Hes been given uncomplimentary names

Thanks for checking in FM. I wasn't really referencing anyone else's theories. I'm not aware of them.

This is just something that occurred to me when I compared the location and date range of the Chicxulub crater and the Deccan Traps, and realized that they both happened at close to the same time (taking into account inaccuracies in localized dating), and at almost directly opposite points on the planet.

I assume that an impact of any size will result in seismic shock waves which travel through the earth and that those waves will always converge at the opposite point on the planet from the impact. I'm just not sure what would or might happen to that place when the waves arrive.

I've heard many theories as to why the dinosaurs may have been having a rough time before the Chicxulub impact (flowing plants and grasses evolved right around that time as well and may have been altering the baseline food sources). And it may be that there were many events converging that were killing off the dinosaurs, but none of them would explain the simultaneous loss of the ammonites and other marine organisms as well as an impact scenario or massive volcanic activity (or both, as I'm wondering may have happened as a result of that impact).

The various seismic events and bolides were almost 10 million years apart according to Chatergee. Climate changes and acidification were several scenarios reported by the "no chixclub event necessary" and the possibilities of an acidification event would be explainable by a hot basic magama flood.
Although the geologic tracks of chixclub are undeniable and the event IS well marked all over the world as a carbon rich and iridium containing smudge .

The T base has really never been set in a real time . There almost a 5 my "slop" factor that involves a possible hiatus event to the base of te second T epoch (the Selandian Epoch).
As I said, this is not my area of interest so Im winging it here and maybe someone else has some more definitive data

If you use 'Newton's cradle' to simulate the effect, you will find that the energy produced will continue to resound in opposition to its impact.
But, if you fire an arrow into a melon - It has to travel about 90% into the fruit to directly displace its opposite skin (intended exit-point).
As far as the earth (as a unit) was concerned - A grain of sand hit it.
Now, when Theia hit it and the moon formed - That was an impact!

To the (eggshell) crust though - I do believe the wave-exit point would have been equally dispersed and most potent only at the weakest points - I don't perceive a giant wall of energy (material) circulating the globe and slamming into itself.

It's all just pebbles making waves, to me.

Thanks for this question, Roswell. It is something about which i was confused. I appreciate FM's response, even if he does stubbornly refuse to recognize the superiority of the meatloaf sammich.

Theres a couple issues that interfere with the "coupling" of chixclub and Deccan Traps.

1They were separated by a million to 3 million years. Energys of any seismic disturbance such as from a bolide, would mov at least 1 to 2 km/sec and faster in the mantle.

2Based upon an ellipsoid of the earth at that time. the antipodes of chixclub would be more in line with W Australia (t its point attached to Antarctica at the time)

3 Tromp and Myhrvold (2011) did a model of the energy dissipation and seismic waves prop from a Chixclub and concluded that (if India were the antipodal point) it would take a waaay lot more energy than Chixclub offered to even crack the rocks of the subcontinental area and allow mantle fluids to rise (The Deccans were Basic lavas so they were not shallow seismics)



The antipodal coupling of Chixclub/Deccan traps idea had always been thought of based upon a spheroid earth

Ahhh, that's the info I wanted.

Those three points pretty much put an end to my little theory. Oh well, it seemed like an interesting idea.

It is. It made me google Deccan Traps, and I've learnt something new today. So thank you.

Just to get your ass all red with envy, my wife just bought me a copy of a magazine called "BACON". (the preserved meat, not the artist)