in Antarctica
Events What researchers don't blame asteroids for: they have led to both a rapid and significant drop in temperature, and caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Now it turns out that, perhaps, due to the collision of the asteroid with the Earth, Antarctic ice has formed.
At the bottom of the Timor Sea, scientists found a 50-kilometer wide impact structure, which they named Mount Ashmore. In their opinion, this rise indicates that about 35 million years ago, an asteroid collided with the Earth, resulting in the formation of this structure on the seabed.
It should be taken into account that this was not the only space object. Similar impact structures, dating back to about the same period of time, are found all over the planet: an impact basin near the Chesapeake Bay 85 kilometers wide, and a crater in Siberia 100 kilometers wide kilometers.
According to scientists, the combined effect of all these objects on the atmosphere led to a decrease in temperature. According to Andrew Gilkson of the Australian National University, the result was also the Drake Strait between Antarctica and South America, although the continents had previously been merged into one whole.
The water that separated the continents determined the development of Antarctica's climate, isolated from the rest of the world, and contributed to the emergence of huge layers of ice that are still are Earth's thermoregulators. The cooling resulting from the collisions triggered a drop in temperature to the level at which ice forms.
The elevation itself at the bottom of the Timor Sea is about 50 kilometers wide, but the impact crater itself may be much larger. If scientists can determine the size of the latter, it will be possible to speak about its impact more accurately.
Typically, impact structures take on different shapes and sizes when they collide. In minor collisions, impact craters form, and if the impact was of great force, an elevation appears in its center.
In the case of Mount Ashmore, the rocks escaped to balance the huge amount of energy released during the collision. But scientists still do not know whether this process has somehow affected the Earth's climate.