Ancient meteorite was ‘giant fertilizer bomb’ for life on Earth

WASHINGTON: The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period caused a global calamitythat doomed the dinosaurs and many other life forms. But that was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet.

One up to 200 times bigger landed 3.26 billion years ago, triggering worldwide destruction at an even greater scale. But, as new research shows, that disaster actually may have been beneficial for the early evolution of life by serving as “a giant fertilizer bomb” for the bacteria and other single-celled organisms called archaea that held dominion at the time, providing access to the key nutrients phosphorous and iron.

Researchers assessed the effects of this meteorite impact using evidence from ancient rocks in a region in northeastern South Africa called the Barberton Greenstone Belt. They found ample signs - mostly from the geochemical signature of preserved organic material but also from fossils of mats of marine bacteria - that life bounced back with aplomb.

“Life not only recovered quickly once conditions returned to normal within a few years to decades, it actually thrived,” said Harvard University geologist Nadja Drabon, lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.