Discussion: More Evidence that Meteors Caused ...

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: A team of researchers from Louisiana State University have uncovered a connection between a meteor strike and a mass extinction that happened 380 million years ago called the middle Devonian event. It happened at a time when small plants, wingless insects and spiders inhabited the land, and everything else lived in the sea - 40% of all life disappeared from the fossil records. They found evidence of the strike by measuring the magnetic signature of layers of rock. When a large asteroid hits the Earth, it distributes a layer of dust around the entire planet - if a strata of rock has the same magnetic signature in different parts of planet, it's evidence of a strike.


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[jkmccrann]

That really does sound like a huge mass-extinction event, one can only hope that all these warning we hear about potential asteroids striking Earth don't turn into a horrible reality.

40% of all life is a scary prospect to consider. :(