According to recent research, a meteorite four times the size of Mount Everest may have contributed to the development of life on our planet. About 3.26 billion years ago, the meteorite S2with a diameter between 37 and 58 km, crashed into Earth. While such events are generally considered catastrophic for life, experts suggest that the impact may have created ideal conditions for some species to flourish.
Nadja Drabon, geologist at Harvard University, explains how the study highlights a positive aspect of meteoric impacts. The event, described in the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienceswould have unleashed a huge tsunami that mixed the ocean and carried coastal debris further inland. The upper part of the ocean even vaporized due to the intense heat, while a dense cloud of dust enveloped the planet. In this hostile environment, however, bacterial life quickly rebounded.
How the S2 meteorite impact favored the first forms of life
According to scientists, the impact of S2 may have provided a significant supply of iron and phosphorus, two elements fundamental for the metabolism of some bacteria. While the iron was brought back from the ocean depths to the surface waters thanks to the motion of the tsunami, the phosphorus was probably released by erosion and the meteorite impact itself.
These changes would then have favored the proliferation of iron-metabolizing bacteria, providing insight into the earliest life forms on Earth.
