Theories of Mass Extinction :: essays research papers

Scientists shake found the first evidence that a lay waste to shooting star squeeze in the Middle East readiness have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 old age ago.Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular picture which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.Todays crater lies on what would have been shallow sea 4,000 years ago, and any impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding.The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many an(prenominal) early nuances went into sudden decline around 2300 BC.They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central Iraq, with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon the end of the fifth dynasty of Egypts Old Kingdom, adjacent the building of the Great Pyramids and the sud den disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the sanctum sanctorum Land.Until now, archaeologists have put forward a host of separate explanations for these events, from topical anesthetic wars to environmental changes. Recently, some astronomers have suggested that meteor impacts could explain such historical mysteries.The craters faint outline was found by Dr Sharad Master, a geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on satellite images of the Al Amarah piece, about 10 miles north-west of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates and plateful of the Marsh Arabs."It was a purely accidental disco real," Dr Master told The Telegraph snuff it week. "I was reading a magazine article about the canal-building projects of ibn Talal Hussein Hussein, and there was a photograph showing lots of formations - one of which was very, very circular."Detailed analysis of other satellite images taken since the mid-1980s showed that for many years the crater contained a small lake.The draining of the region, as part of Saddams ravel against the Marsh Arabs, has since caused the lake to recede, revealing a ring-like ridge inside the larger bowl-like depression - a classic feature of meteor impact craters.The crater in any case appears to be, in geological terms, very recent. Dr Master said "The sediments in this region are very young, so whatever caused the crater-like structure, it must have happened inside the past 6,000 years."Reporting his finding in the latest issue of the ledger Meteoritics &amp Planetary Science, Dr Master suggests that a recent meteor impact is the most plausible explanation for the structure.