It was around 66 million years back that a giant asteroid measuring more than six miles hit the earth with its full fury, causing the extinction of dinosaurs, then dominant species on the planet. Now, a new study has suggested that the asteroid impact acidified the oceans in the earth, and also disrupted the food chain.
The study report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that the disruption of the food chain triggered a mass extinction event in the oceans."It's flash acidification, and it transformed ecosystems for millions of years. We were shocked that we actually found this," said Noah Planavsky, a researcher at Yale, and one of the authors of the study, New York Times reports.
It should be noted that the impact of the giant asteroid on the ocean, sent columns of rocks into the earth's atmosphere, incinerated plants, and also triggered a giant tsunami wiping out several species from the planet's surface. In order to prove the connection between this asteroid impact and marine extinction, Michael Henehan and his team deeply analyzed stones from the Cretaceous period and found that these rocks carried thousands of fossil shells of marine plankton.
The research report also added that the flash acidification in the ocean devastated various organisms that formed the foundation of the ecosystem. It should be noted that, during the time of this ancient asteroid impact, there was intense volcanic activity in what is today India that caused 200,000 cubic miles of lava to be disgorged. However, scientists made it clear that the acidification of the oceans was the result of an asteroid impact and not a volcanic eruption.
A few months back, Dr Iain McDonald, a scientist at the Cardiff University's school of earth and ocean sciences had predicted that earth will be hit by a doomsday asteroid in the future. As per McDonald, doomsday scenarios like asteroid hits are not confined to the past, and it will happen in the future.
