巨型隕石撕開了海底並煮沸了地球的海洋 (2/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:

Mega meteorite tore up seabed and boiled Earth's oceans (2/2)

BBC - Georgina Rannard - Climate and science reporter

Wed, October 23, 2024 at 2:08 a.m. GMT+8·4 min read

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A huge tsunami would have swept across the globe, ripped up the sea floor, and flooded coastlines.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami would have paled in comparison, suggests Prof Drabon.

All that energy would have generated massive amounts of heat that boiled the oceans causing up to tens of metres of water to evaporate. It would also have increased air temperatures by up to 100C.

The skies would have turned black, choked with dust and particles. Without sunlight penetrating the darkness, simple life on land or in shallow water that relied on photosynthesis would have been wiped out.

These impacts are similar to what geologists have found about other big meteorite impacts and what was suspected for S2.

But what Prof Drabon and her team found next was surprising. The rock evidence showed that the violent disturbances churned up nutrients like phosphorus and iron that fed simple organisms.

“Life was not only resilient, but actually bounced back really quickly and thrived,” she says.

“It’s like when you brush your teeth in the morning. It kills 99.9% of bacteria, but by the evening they're all back, right?” she says.

The new findings suggest that the big impacts were like a giant fertiliser, sending essential ingredients for life like phosphorus around the globe.

The tsunami sweeping the planet would also have brought iron-rich water from the depths to the surface, giving early microbes extra energy.

The findings add to a growing view among scientists that early life was actually helped by the violent succession of rocks striking Earth in its early years, Prof Drabon says.

“It seems that life after the impact actually encountered really favourable conditions that allowed it to bloom,” she explains.

The findings are published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Translation

巨型隕石撕開了海底並煮沸了地球的海洋 (2/2)

（繼續）

一場巨大的海嘯曾席捲全球，撕開海底，淹沒海岸線。

Drabon教授表示，相較之下，2004 年的印度洋海嘯就顯得相形見絀了。

所有這些能量都會產生大量熱量，使海洋沸騰，導致蒸發數十公尺深的水。它還會使空氣溫度升高高達 100 攝氏度。

天空曾變成黑色，充滿灰塵和顆粒。如果沒有陽光穿透黑暗，陸地或淺水中依靠光合作用的簡單生命就會被消滅。

這些影響與地質學家對其他大型隕石影響的發現相似, 及對 S2 的懷疑相似。

但Drabon教授和她的團隊接下來的發現令人驚訝。岩石證據表明，劇烈的干擾攪動了磷和鐵等養分，而這些養分是簡單生物體的營養物質。

她說:「生命不僅有韌力，而且實際上很快就會反彈並蓬勃發展」。

她說:「這就像你早上刷牙時一樣。它可以殺死 99.9% 的細菌，但到了晚上它們就會全部回來，對嗎」？

新的發現表明，巨大的撞擊就像一個巨大的肥料，將磷等生命必需的成分輸送到全球各地。

席捲地球的海嘯也將含豐富鐵的水從深處帶到了地表，為早期微生物提供了額外的能量。

Drabon教授表示，這些發現進一步加强了科學家中已普及的觀點，即早期生命實際上是受到了早期猛烈岩石撞擊地球的幫助。

她解釋道:「看來撞擊後的生命實際上遇到了真正有利的條件，使其得以興盛」。

研究結果發表在科學期刊《PNAS》。

So, a huge meteorite known as S2 first discovered in 2014 has caused a tsunami bigger than any in known human history. The S2 meteorite violently gouged out a 500km crater and melt rocks caused by the impact ejected at high speeds to form a cloud that circled around the globe. The tsunami it created brought iron-rich water from the depths to the earth’s surface, giving early microbes extra energy and creating a favorable condition that allowed simple organisms to prosper. Apparently it is an important stage in the development of life on earth.