Impacto de una roca espacial antigua infographic
El gráfico muestra la reconstrucción de lo que hizo el meterorito S2.
GN46406ES

CIENCIA

Una antigua roca espacial pudo haber ayudado a la vida

By Duncan Mil

October 23, 2024 - Evidencia geológica del cinturón de piedras verdes de Barberton en Sudáfrica sugiere que el impacto de un enorme meteorito puso a hervir los océanos, pero también ayudó a formas de vida primitivas a prosperar en la Tierra.

“We think of impact events as being disastrous for life,” said Professor Nadja Drabon, a geologist at Harvard University.

“But what this study is highlighting is that these impacts would have had benefits to life, especially early on -- these impacts might have actually allowed life to flourish.”

Prof. Drabon and her team have now re-constructed what meteorite S2 did when it violently smashed into Earth.

Analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal suggests that S2 triggered a tsunami that mixed up the ocean and flushed debris from the land into coastal areas.

Prof. Drabon said the impact’s heat boiled off the top layer of the ocean, heating the atmosphere, while a thick cloud of dust blanketed the planet.

However, according to the research, bacterial life rebounded quickly, bringing sharp spikes in the populations of single-celled organisms that feed off phosphorus and iron.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 23/10/2024; STORY: Graphic News
Advertisement