A Recent Ice Age Was Triggered by a Firestorm Bigger Than The One That Killed The Dinosaurs
It lasted 1,000 years.
DAVID NIELD 4 FEB 2018
In a hugely detailed and comprehensive new study, researchers have painted a picture of how around a tenth of Earth's surface suddenly became covered in roaring fires at a point some 12,800 years ago.
The firestorm rivals the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it was caused by fragments of a comet that would have measured around 100 kilometres (62 miles) across.
As dust clouds smothered the Earth, it kicked off a mini ice age that kept the planet cool for another thousand years, just as it was emerging from 100,000 years of being covered in glaciers. Once the fires burned out, life could start again, according to the international team of scientists.
"The hypothesis is that a large comet fragmented and the chunks impacted the Earth, causing this disaster," says one of the team, Adrian Melott from the University of Kansas.
"A number of different chemical signatures – carbon dioxide, nitrate, ammonia and others – all seem to indicate that an astonishing 10 percent of the Earth's land surface, or about 10 million square kilometres [3.86 million square miles], was consumed by fires."
More:
http://www.sciencealert.com/13000-years-ago-gigantic-fires-consumed-the-world-causing-ice-age
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