Comet showers as a cause of mass extinctions
Abstract
If at least some mass extinctions are caused by impacts, why do they extend over intervals of one to three million years and have a partly stepwise character? The solution may be provided by multiple cometary impacts. Astronomical, geological and palaeontological evidence is consistent with a causal connection between comet showers, clusters of impact events and stepwise mass extinctions, but it is too early to tell how pervasive this relationship may be.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- September 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1038/329118a0
- Bibcode:
- 1987Natur.329..118H
- Keywords:
-
- Comets;
- Extinction;
- Impact Damage;
- Meteoroid Showers;
- Astronomy;
- Geology;
- Micrometeorites;
- Paleontology;
- Tektites;
- Geophysics