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Large Body Impacts Through Geologic Time

  • Conference paper
Patterns of Change in Earth Evolution

Part of the book series: Dahlem Workshop Reports Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences Research Reports ((DAHLEM PHYSICAL,volume 5))

Abstract

The present collision rate between the Earth and asteroids ≥lkm diameter is estimated to be ~6 x 10-6yr-1; if intermediate albedo bodies predominate among the Earth-crossing asteroids, however, the collision rate might be as low as ~3 x 10-6yr-1. Asteroids ≥10 km diameter collide with the Earth with,an estimated frequency of ~2 x 10-8yr-l. The collision rate of comets is lower than that of asteroids; it is poorly known owing to uncertainties in our knowledge of the size of comet nuclei. The supply of 1 km diameter Earth-crossing asteroids derived from the fragmentation of main belt asteroids is steady within 25%. On the other hand, a surge in the collision of 10 km asteroids, involving perhaps as many as half a dozen bodies in ~5 x 107yr, may have occurred during the Phanerozoic. The flux of Earth-crossing comets probably varies about 1096 as the sun passes into and out of the spiral arms of the galaxy. Brief but intense comet storms probably have recurred about once every 108yr, as a consequence of close passages of stars near the sun. A long-term increase in the average number of extinct comets among the Earth-crossing asteroids could have resulted from slow recovery of the Oort comet cloud after encounter of the sun with a giant molecular cloud.

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  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ, 86001, USA

    E. M. Shoemaker

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H. D. Holland A. F. Trendall

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© 1984 Dr. S. Bernhard, Dahlem Konferenzen

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Shoemaker, E.M. (1984). Large Body Impacts Through Geologic Time. In: Holland, H.D., Trendall, A.F. (eds) Patterns of Change in Earth Evolution. Dahlem Workshop Reports Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences Research Reports, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69317-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69317-5_3

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