Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic
Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic
The terrestrial impact crater record is commonly assumed to be biased, with erosion thought to eliminate older craters, even on stable terrains. Given that the same projectile population strikes Earth and the Moon, terrestrial selection effects can be quantified by using a method to date lunar craters with diameters greater than 10 kilometers and younger than 1 billion years. We found that the impact rate increased by a factor of 2.6 about 290 million years ago. The terrestrial crater record shows similar results, suggesting that the deficit of large terrestrial craters between 300 million and 650 million years ago relative to more recent times stems from a lower impact flux, not preservation bias. The almost complete absence of terrestrial craters older than 650 million years may indicate a massive global-scale erosion event near that time.
253-257
Mazrouei, Sara
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Ghent, Rebecca R.
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Bottke, William F.
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Parker, Alex H.
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Gernon, Thomas M.
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18 January 2019
Mazrouei, Sara
5ccc067b-bb57-4551-87a7-5c6aa0dfe958
Ghent, Rebecca R.
c10d231f-0645-4375-899a-673ef735cf9c
Bottke, William F.
9153ce8e-dd84-4060-be0e-6aad06b490c3
Parker, Alex H.
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Gernon, Thomas M.
658041a0-fdd1-4516-85f4-98895a39235e
Mazrouei, Sara, Ghent, Rebecca R., Bottke, William F., Parker, Alex H. and Gernon, Thomas M.
(2019)
Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic.
Science, 363 (6424), .
(doi:10.1126/science.aar4058).
Abstract
The terrestrial impact crater record is commonly assumed to be biased, with erosion thought to eliminate older craters, even on stable terrains. Given that the same projectile population strikes Earth and the Moon, terrestrial selection effects can be quantified by using a method to date lunar craters with diameters greater than 10 kilometers and younger than 1 billion years. We found that the impact rate increased by a factor of 2.6 about 290 million years ago. The terrestrial crater record shows similar results, suggesting that the deficit of large terrestrial craters between 300 million and 650 million years ago relative to more recent times stems from a lower impact flux, not preservation bias. The almost complete absence of terrestrial craters older than 650 million years may indicate a massive global-scale erosion event near that time.
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aar4058 Science
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 5 December 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 18 January 2019
Published date: 18 January 2019
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 427921
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427921
ISSN: 0036-8075
PURE UUID: 87fe50ff-e516-484a-9021-cd3c8c4a9181
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Date deposited: 04 Feb 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:23
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Contributors
Author:
Sara Mazrouei
Author:
Rebecca R. Ghent
Author:
William F. Bottke
Author:
Alex H. Parker
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