| One of the first reactions of a large bolide impact would be extreme heat. The impact would first “vaporize much of the projectile and a considerable mass of the target rocks” and that vaporized material would “create a significant atmostpheric fireball” that would heat the Earth’s outermost layers (Jones, 1981). When the atmosphere heats up, so does the Earth as a whole. Thus, the ejecta scattered into the sky would ultimately cause the temperatures on the planet to rise by first warming the ozone. Another way that meteroites can heat up Earth is from the rise of “dust clouds, in excess of those produced by major volcanic eruptions,” causing a rise in temperature in excess of 10 degrees Celsius (Lowenstam, 1981). Like the greenhouse gases expelled by volcanoes, the dust and soot could prevent the heat that the Earth releases from escaping the planet, therefore causing the Earth to get warmer. Everyday the Earth radiates energy away from the planet, and relys on that process of expelling heat as a means of maintaining placid landscapes. The rise in temperature following a bolide impact could be so extreme as to have caused one of the great mass extinctions, specifically the one that occurred in the Phanerozoic (Lowenstam, 1981). Of course, a dust cloud of such magnitude would block out the sun, creating a “global blackout reducing sunlight by a factor of 10-7, enduring for several years” (Milne, 1981). Blocking out the sun can cause global cooling, but more importantly can kill off massive amounts of photosynthetic creatures. In addition, acid rain and widespread wildfires were rampant after the major bolide impacts in Eath’s history. (Katherine can explain in more detail! Click here!) |
