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Frequent Ozone Depletion Resulting from Impacts of Asteroids and Comets

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Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society

Abstract

The fossil record reveals that the evolution of life on Earth has been punctuated by a number of catastrophic events, of which one of the most devastating occurred at the end of the Cretaceous, approximately 66 million years ago. The postulate introduced in 1980 by Alvarez et al. (1980) that the collision of an approximately 10 km diameter asteroid with the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs along with more than half of all plant and animal species has resulted in a greatly expanded research efforts in the area of catastrophic events (Alvarez et al. 1980).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, UCB 215, Boulder, CO, 80309-0215, USA

    John W. Birks

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Joh.-Joachim-Becher-Weg 27, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Paul J. Crutzen

  3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0221, USA

    Paul J. Crutzen

  4. High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307-3000, USA

    Raymond G. Roble

Authors
  1. John W. Birks
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  2. Paul J. Crutzen
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  3. Raymond G. Roble
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Canada Landslides and Geotechnics ESS/GSC-CNCB/GSC-NC/EDS, Natural Resources Canada, 601 Booth Street, K1A 0E8, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Peter T. Bobrowsky

  2. Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, Box 515, SE-751 20, Uppsala, Sweden

    Hans Rickman

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Birks, J.W., Crutzen, P.J., Roble, R.G. (2007). Frequent Ozone Depletion Resulting from Impacts of Asteroids and Comets. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Rickman, H. (eds) Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32711-0_13

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