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A late Miocene dust shower from the break-up of an asteroid in the main belt

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  • Kenneth A. Farley

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • David Vokrouhlický

    (Charles University)

  • William F. Bottke

    (Southwest Research Institute)

  • David Nesvorný

    (Southwest Research Institute)

Abstract

Gathering comet dust Earth is continually bombarded by interplanetary dust particles up to a millimetre in diameter, released from asteroids and comets by collision or fragmentation. The fact that the particles are rich in helium-3 means that they can be identified in the geological record. New measurements of 3He in seafloor sediments, together with numerical modelling, point to a single Solar System event as virtually the only source of interplanetary dust accreting to the Earth for a period of 1.5 million years in the late Miocene. The event was probably the destruction by collision of a 150-km-diameter asteroid some 8 million years ago, the same collision that produced the Veritas family of asteroids. Intriguingly, the climax of this bout of dust accretion coincides with modest cooling during the Miocene, although a causal link between the two phenomena remains a matter for speculation.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth A. Farley & David Vokrouhlický & William F. Bottke & David Nesvorný, 2006. "A late Miocene dust shower from the break-up of an asteroid in the main belt," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7074), pages 295-297, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7074:d:10.1038_nature04391
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04391
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