The new research, led by earth scientist Nadia Drabon (Harvard University, USA), focused on the question of the consequences that meteorite impacts had on the single-celled organisms that inhabited the Earth at that time.
For her research, Drabon and her team collected rock samples from South Africa and examined the composition of the sediments they found there. Based on the results, they painted a picture of what happened when the S2 meteorite hit Earth.
“Imagine you are standing off the coast of the Cape Cod Peninsula, with your feet in shallow water — a calm place without strong currents. Then suddenly a huge tsunami sweeps over you, smashing up the sea floor,” Drabon says.
Single-celled organisms
The S2 meteorite, estimated to be about 200 times larger than the meteorite that later wiped out the dinosaurs, caused a tidal wave that shook the ocean and covered the coast with debris. The heat of the collision boiled the upper layer of the ocean and heated the atmosphere as well. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, stopping the photosynthetic activity of single-celled organisms.
But the bacteria are able to withstand the hit, and according to the analysis by Drabon and her colleagues, the single cell population recovered quickly. This is especially true for single-celled organisms that feed on phosphorus and iron. The iron was likely pushed from the deep ocean into the shallow waters by the tsunami, and the phosphorus was brought in by the meteorite itself and by increased erosion on land.
According to Drabon, single-celled organisms actually benefited from this and the effect had a positive impact on life on our planet: “We thought such effects would be disastrous for life,” but our research shows that they also have benefits, and in fact have allowed life to flourish.
