Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Title : | Reconstructing Extraterrestrial Materials Falling on Earth in the Past: Link to Extinction Events and Climate Change |
Area of research : | Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. surya snata Rout, National Institute Of science Education And Research (NIsER) Bhubaneswar, Odisha |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2025 |
Contact info : | surya.rout@niser.ac.in |
Equipments : | Workstation |
Details
Executive Summary : | Major astronomical events, such as asteroid family forming breakups and cratering events, can directly affect the extraterrestrial materials falling on Earth. By studying the types and abundance of meteorites and micrometeorites, researchers can reconstruct past astronomical events by measuring oxygen and chromium isotope composition and cosmic ray exposure ages of relict sediment dispersed extraterrestrial chrome-spinel (sEC) grains from meteorites and micrometeorites. This approach has been applied to 18 different time windows in the past 500 Myrs, providing fundamental understanding about asteroid family forming events and their impact on life evolution and climate changes on Earth. sEC grains from Mid Ordovician show an increase in spinel grains of L chondrite composition, which is related to the largest asteroid breakup event, the L chondrite parent body breakup (LCPB), which occurred around 477 Ma ago. The dust from the LCPB event also led to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. studying sEC grains from Ordovician and Cambrian rocks shows that primitive achondrites were one of the dominant types of meteorites falling on Earth. The study of sEC grains opens up an exciting field of study where it is possible to directly link astronomical events to sedimentary records on Earth. Open fundamental questions can be answered through sEC grain studies from unstudied time windows, such as the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, four major ice ages, and the snowball Earth glaciation event. To answer these questions, the PI proposes studying sEC grains extracted from condensed sediments from the Permian and Lower Triassic age, as well as Early Cambrian rocks from India. |
Total Budget (INR): | 24,31,000 |
Organizations involved