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Annihilation of ecosystems by large asteroid impacts on the early Earth

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Abstract

Large asteroid impacts produced globally lethal conditions by evaporating large volumes of ocean water on the early Earth. The Earth may have been continuously habitable by ecosystems that did not depend on photosynthesis as early as 4.44 Gyr BP (before present). Only a brief interval after 3.8 Gyr exists between the time when obligate photosynthetic organisms could continuously evolve and the time when the palaeontological record indicates highly evolved photosynthetic ecosystems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Norman H. Sleep

  2. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, 94035, USA

    Kevin J. Zahnle

  3. Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    James F. Kasting

  4. Biology Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, 22030–4444, USA

    Harold J. Morowitz

Authors
  1. Norman H. Sleep
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  2. Kevin J. Zahnle
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  3. James F. Kasting
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  4. Harold J. Morowitz
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Sleep, N., Zahnle, K., Kasting, J. et al. Annihilation of ecosystems by large asteroid impacts on the early Earth. Nature 342, 139–142 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/342139a0

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