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Project Progress

Role of Impacts in the Origin, Distribution & Evolution of Life (dm)

We finished testing the new computer system designed to provide 3-D simulations of impact cratering events. We then simulated the Ries impact event that occurred 15 million years ago in what is today Germany. This impact is interesting because it involved carbonate rocks, which, when vaporized, can produce greenhouse-warming carbon dioxide. We are continuing these types of model calculations to determine how impact events can affect Earth’s climate.

We began studies of impact-generated hydrothermal systems. Initial results were presented at several meetings and a paper is presently in production. We are evaluating the thermal history of these systems and their appropriateness for thermophilic and hyperthermophilic life, particularly early in life’s evolution when impact events were more common.

In a collaborative project, we demonstrated that the lunar cataclysm hypothesis was correct. This implies that the Earth was severely bombarded approximately 3.9 Ga ago, coincident with evidence of the earliest evolution of life on Earth.