Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Feb 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001psrd.repte..47t&link_type=abstract
Planetary Science Research Discoveries
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Extinction, Impact, Isotope, Geochemistry, Fullerenes, Buckyballs, Asteroid
Scientific paper
The Permian period ended with a massive extinction event that might have lasted only several thousand years. Over 90% of marine species, 70% of vertebrate land dwellers, and most land plants perished. Scientists have proposed several hypotheses to explain this environmental catastrophe, including massive volcanic eruptions, meteoroid impact, large changes in sea level, and severe climate changes. A huge volcanic complex in Siberia occurred at about the time of the extinction (251 million years ago). Now a group of scientists led by Luann Becker (University of Washington, Seattle) report evidence for an asteroid impact. They discovered fullerenes (nicknamed "buckyballs"), which are cage-like carbon compounds consisting of 60 or more carbon atoms, at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods. The buckyballs at the Permian-Triassic boundary contain trapped helium and argon with isotopic compositions like those in meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, and very different from those on Earth. This led Becker and her colleagues to conclude that impact of a 9-kilometer asteroid deposited the buckyballs. An unanswered question is whether this impact caused the mass extinction by itself or did so in collaboration with the Siberian volcanism and possibly unrelated climate changes.
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