Denver. Scientists claim that the impact of a comet would have caused the so-called Thermal Maximum of the Paleocene-Eocene (MTPE), some 56 million years ago, when temperatures increased in the Land, and led to a massive extinction and migration.
Up to now had been a mystery as to the origin of the MTPE, however, researchers in the u.s. discovered elements that would demonstrate why the carbon increased in the earth’s atmosphere and elevated temperatures up to eight degrees celsius.
"The small impact of a says started the MTPE", only 10 million years after a similar event led to the disappearance of the dinosaurs, says the team of specialists.
Originally, Morgan Schaller, geochemical in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and his graduate student Megan Fung, studied the geological strata in New Jersey in search of fossils of microscopic organisms called "foraminifera".
however, instead of finding "foras" -used as a tool for dating – found a number of areas that are dark and glassy and situated in eight sediment cores from off the coast of New Jersey, often associated with extraterrestrial objects.
The spheres seemed to microtectitas, debris created and scattered when comets or asteroids crash into the Earth at high speeds, which surprised the team, who presented their work at the recent annual meeting of the Geological Society of america.
the researchers analyzed The areas and they were convinced that they were not the product of the eruption of a volcano, which is another way that could have been done, since their water content is less than 0.03 percent, much lower than the volcanic remains.
in Addition, the areas containing inclusions of quartz glass fused, which is characteristic of an impact of very high temperature, and their chemistry is different, according to the results of their analysis, published in the journal Science.
The spheres, for example, have peaks of charcoal, containing specimens of plants charred, pointing to extensive fires caused by a possible impact, but still will have to do more studies so that the theory is accepted by other geologists.
The MTPE caused huge migrations in a scenario of wild life that could reflect the future of the world, due to global warming, warned experts.
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