Cometary impacts and ice-ages |
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Authors: | Fred Hoyle Chandra Wickramasinghe |
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Affiliation: | (1) School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF2 4YH, UK |
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Abstract: | Cycles of glaciation with an average period of 100 kyr are mediatedby impacts of cometary bolides. Ice-age conditions are dry and dusty withlow rates of precipitation. Comets in the mass range 1015 -1016 gimpacting the oceans could release enough water vapour into the atmosphereto enhance a depleted greenhouse effect. The energy deposited in the oceanswould also warm the surface layers, thus starting up anevaporation-precipitation cycle which ushers in warmer interglacialinterludes. The latter have neutral stability and are necessarilyshort-lived, eventually drifting back to glacial conditions on timescalesof 10 kyr. |
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