Asteroid impact effects on Snowball Earth

Several Snowball Earth periods, in which the Earth has been (almost) totally glaciated, are known from Earth history. Neither the trigger for the initiation, nor the reason for the ending of such phases, are well understood. Here we discuss some mechanical effects of the impact of asteroids 5–10 km...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMeteoritics & planetary science Vol. 54; no. 10; pp. 2273 - 2285
Main Authors Koeberl, Christian, Ivanov, Boris A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.10.2019
Subjects
Asteroid collisions
Asteroid impact
Asteroids
Climate change
Climatic evolution
Cloud formation
Deglaciation
Earth
Earth environment
Environmental impact
Global climate
Shock waves
Water vapor
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Summary:Several Snowball Earth periods, in which the Earth has been (almost) totally glaciated, are known from Earth history. Neither the trigger for the initiation, nor the reason for the ending of such phases, are well understood. Here we discuss some mechanical effects of the impact of asteroids 5–10 km in diameter on the Snowball Earth environment. An impact of this scale is the largest impact that is statistically predictable for 10–60 Myr time periods. The impact cratering itself (shock waves, impact crater formation) is not powerful enough to change the natural climate evolution path on Earth. However, the products of impact (mainly—water vapor) can be quickly distributed over a substantial part of the globe, influencing the global circulation (e.g., facilitating cloud formation). It is a question for future studies to confirm if such an event (which is possible statistically during this interval) may or may not have influenced the global climate of the Snowball Earth, and/or contributed to deglaciation.
ISSN:1086-9379
1945-5100
DOI:10.1111/maps.13294