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Terrestrial impactors at geological boundary events - Comets or asteroids?In the present evaluation of evidence presented to date for a 26-28 million year periodicity in the extinction record and the age of large, well dated terrestrial impact craters, it is noted that no simple, one-to-one relationship emerges between major asteroid and/or comet impacts, siderophile anomalies, and biological extinction events. While impacts may indeed be the major extinction-triggering event in some or even most cases, either other major events, or secondary effects of the impacts, may be the actual extinction-causing mechanism. Long term obscuration of insolation, planetary cooling, or lethal atmospheric pollution may vary among extinctions, depending on the actual state of the planet and its biota during the geological period in question. The source of 28 million year-period asteroidal impactors, moreover, remains unknown and thereby casts doubt on the entire periodicity scenario.
Document ID
19850050018
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Weissman, P. R.
(California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Earth and Space Sciences Div., Pasadena CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
April 11, 1985
Publication Information
Publication: Nature
Volume: 314
ISSN: 0028-0836
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
85A32169
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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