"13,000 Years Ago, a Firestorm Covered 10% of Earth's Surface, Triggering an Ice Age"

Extraits de l'article:

At a point some 12,800 years ago, a tenth of Earth's surface suddenly became covered in roaring fires.

The firestorm rivalled the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it was likely caused by fragments of a comet that would have measured around 100 kilometers (62 miles) across.

As dust clouds smothered Earth, they kicked off a mini ice age that kept the planet cool for another thousand years, just as it was emerging from 100,000 years of being covered in glaciers. Once the fires burned out, life could start again.

"The hypothesis is that a large comet fragmented and the chunks impacted the Earth, causing this disaster," said Adrian Melott from the University of Kansas, who co-authored a 2018 study detailing this catastrophic event.