Editing 1980 in science (section)

==Geophysics==
* May 18 –  The [[1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens]] volcano in [[Washington (state)]] kills 57, including American volcanologist [[David A. Johnston]].
* June 6 –  [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis]] and [[Walter Alvarez]] with [[Frank Asaro]] and Helen Michels propose the [[Alvarez hypothesis]], that the [[Extinction event|mass extinction]] of the [[dinosaur]]s was caused by the [[Impact event|impact]] of a large [[asteroid]] 66 million years ago, the [[Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction|author1=Alvarez, Luis W.|author2=Alvarez, Walter|author3=Asaro, Frank|author4=Michel, Helen V.|year=1980|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=208|issue=4448|pages=1095–1108|doi=10.1126/science.208.4448.1095|pmid=17783054|bibcode=1980Sci...208.1095A|citeseerx=10.1.1.126.8496|s2cid=16017767}}</ref>
* October 10 –  The 7.1 {{M|w}} [[1980 El Asnam earthquake|El Asnam earthquake]] shakes northern [[Algeria]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of X (''Extreme''), killing 2,633–5,000.
* November 23 – The 6.9 {{M|w}} [[1980 Irpinia earthquake|Irpinia earthquake]] shakes southern Italy with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of X (''Extreme''), killing 2,483–4,900.