Inside endless winter and acid rain of dinosaur-killing asteroid that was WORSE than we thought, scientists reveal
NEW scientific research hints that the asteroid that eliminated dinosaurs may have been far worse than we originally understood.
In its aftermath, the catastrophic asteroid caused years of sulfur rain in the atmosphere, and permanent changes to the earth's temperature.
A published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) said the volume of sulfur that rained down into the earth's atmosphere may have been far higher than we originally thought.
That sulfur was trapped in clouds above the atmosphere. The clouds blocked the sun, creating cooling effects for decades to centuries, according to the study.
The sulfur then fell back to earth as acid rain, that ended up in earth's waterways, impacting sea-life and sea chemistry for tens of thousands of years.
This acid rain had huge effects on the climate, and may have even contributed to climate change as we see its effects today.
Researchers said the acid rain may be why life, especially marine life, took longer to recover from the asteroid due to the continuous acid and sulfur that contaminated oceans.
This new information was uncovered as scientists were investigating a site in Falls County, Texas.
They set out to investigate ancient shells along the Brazos River, an area that became submerged as land dinosaurs perished.
During their research, scientists took sediment samples back to a lab. Several geologists in Scotland discovered unique sulfur interactions they had never seen before.
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Lead researcher James Witts was quoted by as saying that the sulfur reactions they were seeing can only happen in two scenarios: "in an environment with no oxygen or when there is so much sulfur in the atmosphere that it has gotten extremely high up into an oxygenated atmosphere."
Climate scientists estimate that the asteroid and its following sulfur cloud cooled the earth's temperature by 3.6 to 14.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
Scientists think that by studying more of the effects that the sulfur clouds and acid rain had on our atmosphere thousands of years ago, we can understand more about the impacts of greenhouse gases being released into earth's atmosphere today.
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"There is an anthropogenic extinction-level event happening right now," geochemist Gregory Henkes told National Geographic.
Henkes was "referring to the dramatic declines in biodiversity that humans have caused by releasing greenhouse gasses, changing land usage, introducing invasive species, and more," the publication wrote.
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