Planetary Science Institute | 24 Oct 2010
Ozone perturbation from medium-size asteroid impacts in the ocean - E Pierazzo et alAn asteroid crashing into the deep ocean could have dramatic worldwide environmental effects including depleting the Earth’s protective ozone layer for several years, a Planetary Science Institute researcher has found.
This could result in a huge spike in ultraviolet radiation levels and hamper efforts to grow crops, as well as affect other life forms on Earth.
A medium-sized asteroid – between 500 meters and one km in diameter – smashing into Earth’s deep oceans would send vast amounts of seawater into the air, said Elisabetta Pierazzo, PSI senior scientist.
In the past, the interest in the effects of oceanic impacts of medium sized asteroids have focused on the danger of regional tsunami, but Pierazzo’s new approach, published recently in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, has used computer modeling scenarios to look at the effects such a strike would have on the atmospheric ozone.
Working with a team of atmospheric scientists, she looked at two asteroid impact scenarios: 500 meter and one km diameter asteroids impacting an ocean 4 km deep.
...
The modeling depicted how rapidly ejected seawater, included as water vapor and compounds like chloride and bromide that hasten the destruction of the ozone, would affect atmospheric chemistry, said Pierazzo, the paper’s lead author and project principal investigator.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters (in press) DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.08.036
NASA Astrobiology | 27 Oct 2010
Ocean Impacts and Their ConsequencesA new study explains how an asteroid impact with the deep ocean could affect the Earth's climate and biosphere by causing a drastic depletion of the ozone layer. The study will help us understand the role of events originating from space in the future of life on our planet.
Centauri Dreams | 27 Oct 2010