Saturday, 26 May 2018

Asteroid That Killed Dinosaurs Caused Global Warming For 100,000 Years


A massive asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago and triggered a series of sporadic events that wiped out nearly three fourth of life living on the planet, including non-avian dinosaurs. It has long been believed the event, popularly known as the Chicxulub impact, proved catastrophic for all of life in ways more than one, but if the latest study is anything to go by, the impact had a much broader and long-lasting effect on global temperatures.

In the past, scientists have posited the immediate aftermath of the impact resulted in a period of what has been called a “global winter.” Dust and aerosols blocked sunlight and led to a massive decline in global temperatures for a few years. But, that was just the beginning.

As the asteroid crashed into rocks rich in carbonates and triggered massive wildfires around the globe, there was an extensive surge in the carbon dioxide levels prevailing in the atmosphere. So, as the dust and haze cleared and sunlight started reaching the surface of Earth, the greenhouse gas got into action and raised global temperatures. The idea of rising temperatures has also been around for a long time, but the latest work by scientists from the University of Missouri gives us a clearer picture.

Read more here: http://www.ibtimes.com/asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-caused-global-warming-1000-centuries-2684397

The study, titled "Postimpact earliest Paleogene warming shown by fish debris oxygen isotopes (El Kef, Tunisia)," was published May 24 in Science Magazine.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/05/24/science.aap8525


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