According to researchers, the giant S2 meteorite was up to 60 kilometers wide. It destroyed life, but it also created the conditions for a new kind of life.
You may have heard about the meteorite that hit the Earth 66 million years ago and caused the dinosaurs to die out.
Researchers have found evidence from an even larger “megameteorite” that is estimated to have hit the Earth three billion years ago.
This S2 meteorite was 40-60 kilometers wide and the size of four Mt. Mount Everest. Scientists estimate that S2 weighed 200 times more than the meteorite that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
When S2 hit Earth, life looked very different here. The Earth was mostly covered by sea and there were few continents. Life consisted of only single-celled organisms.
The impact created a crater 500 kilometers wide and caused a gigantic tsunami. When the megameteorite hit the Earth, it disintegrated a huge amount of rock material, which crumbled into dust in the atmosphere and darkened the sky.
The air temperature rose even at a hundred degrees. The top layer of seawater heated up so much that it vaporized and evaporated into the atmosphere.
The first evidence of the S2 meteorite was already found in 2014. Until now, it has been believed to cause such extensive destruction that almost all sunlight-dependent life on Earth ended.
However, a recent study by Harvard University shows that the effect of S2 was also different.
– We often think that meteorites hitting the Earth are harmful to life. However, our research shows that especially in the early days of the Earth, the impact of meteorites created the conditions for life, the professor leading the research group Nadja Drabon told Harvard University’s The Harvard Gazette.
The impact of the meteorite was so powerful that it brought out substances such as phosphorus and iron from underground, which in turn nourished a new kind of life.
Drabon compares what happened to global fertilization, where important substances are spread to new areas.