How long would impact winter last

Because water holds onto heat longer than land or air, there were initially significant temperature differences between the atmosphere and the oceans that led to large storms and hurricanes.

The impact winter did not last long, however. Over a few months or possibly a few decades, the dust and soot fell out of the atmosphere and rained down onto the land and oceans, allowing sunlight to warm the planet once again. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists from the Netherlands says it has found the first hard evidence of the hypothesized impact winter, buried deep in the geological record.

To take the temperature of the Earth 66 million years ago, the researchers looked at lipids produced by an ocean-dwelling microorganism called Thaumarchaeota, preserved in sediment rocks near the Brazos River in Texas.

Thaumarchaeota adjust the composition of the lipids in their cell membranes to the temperature of the sea water. When the organism dies, it sinks to the sea floor, and the lipids in its membrane are preserved in sandy ocean sediments. But at the Brazos River site, they got lucky.

The acid rain runs into the oceans and kills marine organisms, especially along the continental shelves. The impact and subsequent fires also release a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

After the initial impact winter is all over, there is so much carbon dioxide in the air that a centuries-long greenhouse effect may result. Either way, the consequences were so dire that it is a wonder that any species survived at all. But some did. After the dust settled, they emerged to spread over the newly shaped world and multiplied and found new niches in which to fulfill their destinies. Newsletter Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American.

Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. If we were to consider only the size of the asteroid to be the key factor and ignore other factors, then the impact winter duration can be estimated by using computer simulations.

When a celestial body of diameter above 4 or 5 kilometers hits the surface of the earth, it causes soil, dust, ash, and other particles to rise into the atmosphere. The radiation of the sun that reaches the earth is essential for the photosynthesis reaction. This reaction is essential for plants to produce their food.

Lack of sunlight will disrupt the food cycle. Subsequently, due to the lack of radiation heat, the temperature drops drastically. Along with the impact winter, natural catastrophes like storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes may also get triggered. They not only cause large-scale destruction but add to the number of particles absorbing radiation heat.

The large temperature differences between the atmosphere and water bodies would occur. This would allow the radiation heat to warm the planet. This will again restore the temperature difference between atmosphere and water bodies.