User:Robert Beatty/sandbox

Ocean Asteroid impacts

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is soluble in sea water and is present in very large quantities. It mostly reports as the bicarbonate radical   (&minus;HCO3) which is only stable at temperatures below 50°C.

Sea surface temperatures are normally below 50°C, but can easily exceed that temperature when an asteroid strikes the ocean thereby inducing a large thermal shock. Under those circumstances very large quantities of CO2 erupt from the ocean. As a heavy gas, the CO2 can quickly spread around the world in concentrations sufficient to suffocate air breathing fauna, selectively at low altitudes.

Asteroid impacts with the ocean may not leave obvious signs, but these impacts have the potential to be far more devastating to life on earth than impacts with the land. Robert Beatty (talk) 05:32, 12 January 2013 (UTC)