When the massive space rock that slammed into the Earth some 66 million years ago reached our planet it caused one heck of a scene. The effects of the impact were immediate, causing a massive explosion that sent water and rock flying as far as the eye could see. It dramatically changed the weather on a worldwide scale and plunged the planet into a cold, dark haze that led to the extinction of the majority of life. Now, scientists believe the incredible event may have also triggered countless underwater volcanoes to spontaneously spring to life, adding to the turmoil.
To get a better idea of exactly what was going on deep underwater at the time the meteorite struck, the researchers needed some way of measuring how the sea floor has changed over time. They used gravitational mapping tools from satellites to gather information that revealed when large deposits of material were made, and where that material piled up. What they found was a spike in the number of “structural anomalies” occurring immediately around when the rock is thought to have hit the planet.
Building upon the hard data, the researchers suggest that the force of the strike was enough to set off volcanic activity on the ocean floor, causing magma to gush from the mid-ocean ridges all over the world. The study, which was published in Science Advances, proposes that this period of heightened volcanic activity may have lasted for as long as hundreds of thousands of years. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]NASA discovered two asteroids that will make close passes by Earth this week, though they do not pose a threat to the planet’s safety.
Astronomers observed the close-approaching asteroids at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona on Feb. 4, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The first asteroid flew past Earth on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 12:10 p.m.
Asteroid 2018 CC, estimated to be between 50 and 100 feet in size, was only 114,000 miles away from the planet when it passed.
One Twitter user posted a picture of the flyby from an Observatory in Australia.
Looking good from Samford Valley Observatory (Q79), Australia! pic.twitter.com/Kg5BBUlgsR
— Astrojunk (@Jaybee_65) February 6, 2018
The second asteroid, 2018 CB is reportedly going to pass by Earth on Friday, Feb. 9 around 2:30 p.m.
2018 CB will fly past the planet at only 39,000 miles away, less than one-fifth the distance between Earth and the Moon. – READ MORE
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