22 October 2024
Scientists have discovered that a large meteorite, first discovered in 2014, caused the largest known tsunami in Earth’s history and boiled the oceans.
This 40-60 km wide meteorite hit the Earth three billion years ago.
The meteorite known as S2 was discovered 66 million years ago. destroy dinosaurs It is estimated to be 200 times larger than the meteorite.
Scientists studying an impact site in South Africa found evidence that large asteroid impacts not only destroyed Earth but also helped the development of early life.
The lead author of the new study is Dr. from Harvard University. Nadja Drabon reminds us that after the Earth was first created, there was a lot of debris that fell into space and says, “But now, we understand, from that after these great tragedies, life was really resilient and actually got longer.
The S2 meteorite was 40-60 km wide and its mass was 50-200 times greater.
About 1.5 billion years after its creation, the Earth that was hit by this meteorite looked very different from today. Most of its surface was covered by water, and only a few continents emerged from the sea. Life, which consisted of single-celled microorganisms, was a very simple form.
source, Nadja Drabon
The impact site east of the Barberton Greenstone Belt is one of the oldest places on Earth where debris from a meteor impact has been found.
Dr. Drabon and his team were looking for small pieces of rock left by the impact. They collected hundreds of kilograms of rock fragments and sent them to the laboratory for analysis.
The team makes the following predictions about what might have happened when the S2 meteorite hit Earth:
The meteorite had opened a 500 km long crack and thrown the rocks at incredible speeds, creating a cloud that revolved around the earth.
Prof. Drabon describes this idea as “Think of a rain cloud, but instead of raindrops, it’s like drops of molten rock falling from the sky.”
source, Nadja Drabon
The impact created a huge tsunami, breaking the seabed and flooding the coasts.
All this energy produced a lot of heat that boiled the oceans, caused tens of meters of water to clear, and also raised the air temperature up to 100C.
The sky was covered with a dark cloud of dust and particles, and since sunlight could not penetrate this Earth, simple life on land or in shallow waters depended on photo- to destroy synthesis.
source, Nadja Drabon
It gave you a chance to change your life
These impacts are similar to what geologists have discovered about other large asteroid impacts.
However, Prof. Drabon and his team then came up with surprising results. Results hidden in rocks showed that violent earthquakes disrupted nutrients such as phosphorus and iron that nourish simple organisms.
“Not only was life stable, but it went back and grew very quickly,” says Drabon, making the following analogy:
“It’s like when you brush your teeth in the morning. “You kill 99.9 percent of the bacteria, but by the evening it comes back. “
New findings show that massive accidents served a nutritional function, allowing substances essential to life such as phosphorus to be dispersed around the world.
The tsunami that shook the planet may have brought iron-rich water from the depths to the surface, providing extra energy for early microbes.
Prof. Drabon says the findings support the idea that early meteorites hitting the Earth again helped the development of life.
“It seems that impacts created favorable conditions for life to flourish,” he explains.
The findings were published in the scientific journal PNAS.
2024-10-22 11:43:00
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