At the annual meeting of the American Society of Geologists, presented a new version of the cause of global warming, which occurred 56 million years ago.

Scientists from the Rensselaer Institute (United States of America) put forward a simple, but quite real version. Warming occurred from the fall of a huge comet on our planet. Experts believe that such a powerful blow provoked the release of a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Which in turn led to an increase in temperature by five to eight degrees. This warming lasted more than one hundred thousand years and led to the gradual extinction of almost all the flora of that time and the emergence of modern species.

To such conclusions, the researchers came after working with the substances of marine sediments. When studying amoeba shells, they, quite by accident, found small spherical pellets from molten glass.

Such granules could be formed only due to a blow to the ground of a large cosmic body or a volcanic eruption. But if they were of volcanic origin, the water in them would not be 0.03%, but much more.

In addition, in the cores after the layer with glass beads, a layer with a large amount of charcoal particles. This is another bright indicator of large fires as a result of the bombing of the comet and the rapid warming.

However, as the media write, not all conference participants agreed with this hypothesis. According to the opponents, the comet could become the direct culprit of global warming only if it hit a straight natural reservoir filled with oil. What many scientists have doubts about. Most likely, experts believe, the comet has simply become a kind of detonator for underwater volcanism and the release of huge carbon stocks.

Source: Astronews.