Asteroid impact, Schumann resonances and the end of dinosaurs

Abstract

We estimate the expected magnitudes of the Schumann resonance fields immediately after the Chicxulub impact and show that they exceed their present-day values by about $5\times 10^4$ times. Long-term distortion of the Schumann resonance parameters is also expected due to the enviromental impact of the Chicxulub event. If Schumann resonances play a regulatory biological role, as some studies indicate, it is possible that the excitation and distortion of Schumann resonances as a result of the asteroid/comet impact was a possible stress factor, which, among other stress factors associated with the impact, contributed to the demise of dinosaurs.

26 pages, no figures, version to be published in Physics Letters A

References in corpus (2)

• The role of the Riemann-Silberstein vector in classical and quantum theories of electromagnetism
• Assessments of the energy, mass and size of the Chicxulub Impactor