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A28 SCIENCE
Friday 9 February 2018
Dinosaur-killing space rock may have triggered sea volcanoes

By SETH BORENSTEIN versity. "There's something
AP Science Writer there, maybe. Whether it
WASHINGTON (AP) — The has to do with the impact is
giant space rock that more questionable."
wiped out the dinosaurs Both Melosh and Sean
may have set off a chain Gulick of the University of
of cataclysmic volcanic Texas, who dug deep into
eruptions on land and un- the crater core recently,
dersea, claims a new study said the study is based on
that is already dividing sci- coincidental timing and
entists. doesn't show a precise
About 66 million years ago physical way the impact
a 6-mile wide asteroid could have caused erup-
smacked into Earth, creat- tions. It doesn't help that
ing the Chicxulub crater in because the ocean floor is
the Yucatan and sparking so poorly explored, Byrnes
deadly chaos. Superhot and Karlstrom can only pin
particles rained from the the date of the eruptions to
air causing fires across the a wide time band, one mil-
globe and sending temper- This 2015 image provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows the edge of the lion years long.
atures higher. Then it got 2015 lava flow, above, at the Axial Seamount where it overlies older sedimented lavas, bottom. That doesn't bother Renne.
worse. Clouds of particles Associated Press He said the asteroid colli-
reflected the sun's energy sion is an event that only
away, darkening the skies entire continental United the extinction, the impact underwater. happens once every 100
and cooling Earth at least States a couple hundred of the crater and its plumes This new study found just million years, and the Indi-
45 degrees (25 degrees feet deep or so. of debris or other upheaval those eruptions, bolstering an volcanic eruption is the
Celsius) for several years, "We're showing there was of the Earth's crust in the the theory that connects type that happens once
scientists said. And that a lot more going on than wake of the collision. A hyped-up volcanic activity every 30 million years, so
big hit set off earthquakes we thought," said University study in 2015 suggested globally to the initial colli- for the two to happen at
close to 100 times stronger of Minnesota geophysicist that the collision made vol- sion, said study co-author the same time and not be
than the biggest we've Joseph Byrnes, the study's canic eruptions in India that Leif Karlstrom, an Earth sci- related "is really pushing it."
seen in modern times. lead author. "We're paint- scientists have long known ences professor at the Uni- The situation may only
It was enough to kill off ing a new sequence of about, called the Deccan versity of Oregon. be getting more chaotic,
three-quarters of the life events." traps, far more intense and Scientists who downplay though: Even more glimps-
on Earth, especially most These underwater volcanic deadly. volcanic effects said the es into that time period are
of the creatures and plants areas — called mid-ocean But if that were true, sci- new study doesn't prove its coming from research now
on land. ridges — often erupt, even entists said there should case. underway, including about
But there were even more today. But this happened be evidence of increased "The signal that they see is giant tsunamis on what is
reverberations, possibly on a far bigger scale. volcanic activity elsewhere really kind of feeble," said now inland northern United
deadly ones, the new study What happened inside the around the world, including Jay Melosh of Purdue Uni- States and Croatia.q
says. underwater volcanoes is Asteroid coming close Friday:
New evidence suggests all "totally analogous to a can
a frothy mess," said Univer- Don’t worry, we’re safe
that shaking triggered mas- of Coke that gets shaken.
sive volcanic eruptions that The whole thing turns into
spewed gases and parti-
cles into the air and water sity of California, Berkeley
too. A study in Wednesday's geologist Paul Renne, who By MARCIA DUNN feet to 130 feet (15 meters can pass very close to our
journal Science Advances wasn't part of the study but CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. to 40 meters) in size, pos- planet and it's important
figures sometime after the said it "illustrates how inter- (AP) — Another asteroid sibly bigger than the one that we find these objects
asteroid crash, unusual and twined everything else is." is headed our way — the that exploded over Russia when they do get close."
extra strong eruptions hap- The study's authors say their second this week — but five years ago this month. It will be the second time
pened on the floor of the work hints that the under- there's no need to worry. The manager of NASA's this week an asteroid buzz-
oceans, probably in what water eruptions helped The newly discovered Center for Near-Earth Ob- es us. On Tuesday, an aster-
are now the Pacific and In- turn the oceans more acid- space rock will pass within ject Studies , Paul Chodas, oid passed within 114,000
dian oceans. The study au- ic and added to extinc- 39,000 miles (64,000 kilo- said asteroids this size usu- miles (184,000 kilometers),
thors calculate that those tion carnage, but they said meters) of Earth on Friday ally don't come this close slightly more than halfway
ejected a tremendous they need more research afternoon. That's less than — just once or twice a year. to the moon.
amount of molten rock un- to go that extra step. one-fifth the distance to While Friday's close ap- Both of this week's asteroids
derwater — so much that Scientists are split, some- the moon. proach isn't a huge deal, were discovered Feb. 4 by
on land it would cover the times heatedly, over what Designated 2018 CB, the Chodas said in an email, "it astronomers at the NASA-
really triggered the worst of asteroid is an estimated 50 is a reminder that asteroids funded Catalina Sky Survey
in Arizona. Last year, more
than 2,000 previously un-
known near-Earth asteroids
were discovered, accord-
ing to Chodas.
A whopper asteroid named
Apophis — estimated at
approximately 1,000 feet or
more than 300 meters — will
pass at just one-tenth the
distance between Earth
and the moon in 2029. q