Meteoritic Impacts and Climatic Changes in Pliocene–Pleistocene Epoch |
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| Authors: | Trina Bose Ajoy K Bhaumik Saumitra Misra |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721 302, West Bengal, India |
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| Abstract: | During the Pliocene–Pleistocene epoch, covering last ∼5.2 Ma of Earth’s history, altogether 34 terrestrial meteoritic impact
craters are known. Most of these craters (29) have diameter ≤10 km, among which 11 craters fall in 1,000 to 100 m range, and
7 are still smaller in dimension and of recent age. The age versus impact-frequency plot shows that the meteoritic impacts
during this time period occurred in discrete intervals but have a periodicity that shows the best possible coincidence with
the ∼425 Ky climatic cycles observed by Fourier analysis and FFT filtering of composite high resolution benthic foraminiferal
δ18O record. This observation is also supported by Monte Carlo test with 71% success where meteoritic impact(s) shows coincidence
with climatic cooling within our error limit. The newly observed climatic–meteoritic cycle may be same with the ∼400 Ky Milankovitch
cycle or it is a different newly understood cycle relating both the climatic variation and meteoritic impact events. |
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| Keywords: | Climatic– meteoritic cycle Meteoritic impact δ 18O climatic periodicities Pliocene– pleistocene epoch Cenozoic era |
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