Washington (NVI): The Earth was under stress before the asteroid impact that wiped out dinosaurs, a new study has found.
Researchers at Northwestern University in the United States found that in the run up to extinction of dinosaurs, the chemistry of Antarctic seashells shifted in response to surge of carbons in oceans.
The study is the first to measure the calcium isotope composition of fossilized clam and snail shells, which date back to the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event.
This carbon influx was likely due to long-term eruptions from the Deccan Traps, a 200,000-square-mile volcanic area in India, according to the study.
During the years leading up to the asteroid impact, the Deccan Traps spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The concentration of CO2 acidified the oceans, directly affecting the organisms living there, it said
“Our data suggest that the environment was changing before the asteroid impact,” said Benjamin Linzmeier, the study’s first author.
“Those changes appear to correlate with the eruption of the Deccan Traps.”
“The Earth was clearly under stress before the major mass extinction event,” said Andrew D. Jacobson, a senior author of the study.
