precipitate

About 66 million years ago, scientists believe, a city-size asteroid crashed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, precipitating a series of worldwide catastrophes: a massive earthquake, landslides, wildfires, tsunamis and temperatures reaching 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

No details about what precipitated the incident were released.

A spat over seagulls, of all things, and whether the government would postpone a planned summit or make a statement in the chamber about it, precipitated some sharp exchanges between Hepburn and Ross.

L.A.’s nonchalant highhandedness can gall today as it did 101 years ago when it precipitated what secessionists hailed as the “day of deliverance” from the “imperial county.”

Such developments, coupled with growing public outrage, seem to have precipitated a change of tone from the Australian government.