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The Planet Earth:
Did Moroccan Meteorite Cause Extinctions?
A team of explorers from Louisiana State University, who uncovered a huge meteor impact crater in the Moroccan desert of North Africa, describe it as the second mark of an ancient mass extinction of life on Earth, according to The Scotsman daily newspaper in Edinburgh.
A meteor streaks through Earth's sky
click to enlarge SEDS Nine Planets image
When the meteorite struck the desert some 380 million years ago, it may have killed off as much as 40 percent of Earth's marine species.
The other major scar on Earth's surface is a large impact crater caused by an asteroid, or maybe a comet, 65 million years ago. That one may have wiped out three-quarters of the species living on Earth at the time, including dinosaurs, when it crashed at Chixculub off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
The much older Moroccan impact was at a time that archaeologists refer to as the Kacak-otomari extinction period.
The explorers were near Rissani, Morocco, looking at Devonian rock formations in the Anti Atlas desert when they uncovered a combination of rock formations, minerals, and carbon isotopes like those found in the Yucatan and around other impact craters.
Major Extinctions Extinction
Yucatan 65 75 % Permian 245 96 % Morocco 380 40 % Ordovician 440 85 %
The explorers found fossils of what they suggested were many species in the Moroccan rock layers just above the impact layer. The fossils gave the impression that those species had appeared on Earth after the disaster.
Apparently there were multiple catastrophes over the eons that affected the evolution of life on Earth. In addition to Yucatan 65 miles years ago and Morocco 380 million years ago, a major extinction at the end of the Permian Period, 245 million years ago, saw 96 percent of species disappear from Earth.
And then, at the end of the Ordovician Period 440 million years ago, 85 percent of all species seem to have perished.
To learn more about meteorites: Evidence of second huge meteor impact Scotsman
Meteors, Meteorites and Impacts SEDS Nine Planets
Asteroid Comet Impact Hazards Website NASA
Near-Earth Object Program NASA
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking NASA
Near Earth Objects Information Centre U.K.
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Turkmenistan News Net
Guide to Turkmenistan Lonely Planet
Perspectives on Central Asia Lesotho CIA World Factbook
Lesotho Resources African Studies Center, UPenn
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Committee for the Scientific Investigation
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American Association for Critical Scientific
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Astronomes Amateurs du Luxembourg AAL
The Daily Grail TDG
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