1British Antarctic Survey
Abstract. The biosphere is subject to a diversity of physical processes that result in catastrophic change, both at the local level and global level. All of these events have unique patterns of biological damage and recovery, but asteroid and comet impact events fill an unusual niche. They are the o...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.630.2797 http://biospace.nw.ru/astrobiology/Articles2002/Astrobio_cockell_185_203.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract. The biosphere is subject to a diversity of physical processes that result in catastrophic change, both at the local level and global level. All of these events have unique patterns of biological damage and recovery, but asteroid and comet impact events fill an unusual niche. They are the only extraterrestrial agents capable of causing local ecosystem destruction. Although large impact events also have local effects associated with them, such as pelagic-impact generated tsunamis, large impacts cause gross changes in atmospheric chemistry that yield biospheric-scale trauma. Some of the environmental changes caused by impact events and the subsequent patterns of recovery bear similarities to volcanism. A ‘four piece jigsaw of catastrophism ’ can be defined, which provides a convenient method for separating local and global effects of catastrophism and separating endogenous and exogenous agents of ecosystem distrurbance. These divisions are also consistent useful for separating the patterns of recovery that occur following these events. |
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