A study links the increase in impact craters during the Ordovician Period to an ancient ring of asteroid debris encircling Earth, suggesting drastically altered climate and biodiversity.
Researchers led by Andy Tomkins propose that an asteroid passed close enough to Earth to be torn apart, resulting in debris forming a ring around the planet, leading to significant meteor impacts.
The clustering of Ordovician impact craters around the equator contradicts the previous theory of random distribution from the asteroid belt, indicating a local equatorial origin for the impacts.
Dr. Tomkins was inspired by the formation of Mars' moons from a ring of debris, leading him to explore whether Earth had a similar ring in its geologic past.
Collection
[
|
...
]