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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Earth’s surface ‘vaporized’ from asteroid impact that killed off dinosaurs – study RT... The asteroid that annihilated the dinosaurs and “reset the clock” for life on Earth could not have done the job without first liquefying the planet’s surface, a new study found. Lead researcher and geophysicist Sean Gulick spoke to RT. The scientific consensus has been for some time that about 66 million years ago, Earth changed forever. But exactly how is still being learned, and new research from the University of Texas at Austin goes as far as to alter “clues into the origin of life on earth,” Sean Gulick, a research professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences’ Institute for Geophysics, told RT’s Manila Chan. Not only was the sun blocked out by the earth’s atmosphere and 75 percent of all life extinguished following an asteroid collision, but the earth’s surface at the site of the impact “was vaporized.” “And then a bit below that was ejected,” Gulick said. “But the material below that then started behaving, we think, much like a slow-moving fluid.” Read more © NASA/ 2bn-yo water found deep underground offers clues to possible life on other planets That fluidy earth was at first pushed downward, creating “a transient crater,” about 60 miles (100 kilometers) across, and 20 miles (30 kilometers) deep, according to Gulick. “But that wouldn't've lasted very long,” he said, adding, “that would've started collapsing almost immediately. The sides would have collapsed in.” That explains the formation of a ring of mountain ridges, or a “peak ring” as Gulick called it, much like the Gulf of Mexico. There are competing models to explain how such phenomena occur, he said. “This is probably the most important geologic event in the last 100 million years,” Gulick told RT. “It really reset the clock on an enormous amount of evolutionary trends that were happening, in terms of life.” “That obviously included the end of the era of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals slowly over the next 66 million years, leading to ourselves, which we should be happy about,” he added. The takeaway is that the origin story of life on earth may have a different beginning than what’s currently believed. “We're learning something fundamental about the relationship between impacts and subsurface life,” Gulick said, adding, “We already know that there's more biomass on the earth today in the crust than there is on the surface.” Dinosaurs wiped out when asteroid struck oil, claims study Published time: 15 Jul, 2016 17:06 The new theory hopes to explain why animals like crocodiles did not die alongside the dinosaurs. © Shannon Stapleton / Reuters Flaming fossil fuels may have brought about dinosaurs’ demise, according to a new study which claims the asteroid which hit Earth 66 million years ago struck an oil field filling the planet's atmosphere with soot. The research published in Scientific Reports was carried out by a team from Tohoku University in Japan. The paper bases its evidence on soot found around the world which the researchers say originated from the combustion of crude oil when the asteroid struck. The new theory casts doubt on the commonly-held theory that the asteroid impact was solely responsible for the mass extinction. “Our results show that the stratospheric aerosols did not induce darkness, in contrast to previous assumptions,” the study says. Previous theories on the extinction of dinosaurs say that the earth was plunged into a period of total darkness following the tremendously powerful impact from space. However, this fails to explain why animals such crocodiles were able to survive the catastrophic event. Read more Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia speaks next to a screen showing two Cretaceous Period predatory dinosaurs (L and R) named Gualicho in northern Patagonia 90 million years ago in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 13, 2016. © Enrique Marcarian New dinosaur species discovered is the product of bad luck Under the new hypothesis, the soot generated from the asteroid-ignited oilfields caused a significant reduction in sunlight of between 50 to 90 percent, but still allowed limited photosynthesis. Temperatures plunged and areas further away from the equator were worst affected, experiencing drops of up to 18 degrees Celsius (+64 Fahrenheit), while rainfall levels are believed to have dropped by as much as 80 percent. The plummeting temperatures are credited with causing the extinction of both dinosaurs and crocodiles in the colder regions. Closer to the equator, though, the cooling would have been less dramatic. Dinosaurs died due to drought but crocodiles survived on a diet of aquatic animals which had lived on despite the sudden environmental changes. Chicxulub in Mexico - the third largest known impact crater on earth - is believed to be the site the asteroid struck with the force of 1 billion nuclear bombs, causing a crater more than 180km wide. It would have taken a decade for light to return to normal and a further couple of years before temperatures heated up, by which time most dinosaurs would have died. www.rt.com/viral/351320-d...-extinction-asteroid-oil/ Poster Comment: Sounds like big collisions could have fractured earth sphere creating tectonic plates. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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