If another KT impact were to happen today, it would cause another Snowball Earth

[Count Iblis]

http://www.snowballearth.org/could.html"

On the other hand, a climate model predicted that if the 10-km-diameter asteroid that hit the Earth 65 million years ago extinguishing the dinosaurs and many marine lineages hit instead today, a snowball Earth would result. This is because the present cold ocean is more susceptible to surface freezing than the warm Cretaceous ocean (when a snowball Earth did not occur) during the decade of reduced Solar forcing due to dust thrown up by the impact

 

[Andre]

I wonder about the scientific level of such statements. First of all, a warm Cretaceous ocean is a hypothesis, based on suppositions. No matter how sophisticated, it cannot be proven.

Second, the rate at which the atmosphere cleans after a disturbance is not dependent on the amount of debris but on atmospheric density, particle size and gravity, which can easily been demonstrated with different volcanic outbursts. The bigger particles settle within a year (Mount Tambora eruption 1816 - The year without summer) while the smallest aerosol particles remaining airborne for about 3-4 years (Pinotuba eruption 1991). Therefore it is rather uncertain if atmospheric disturbance is long enough to create a "snowball earth". Regardless if now or during the Cretaceous.

Hence statements like that are highly speculative and can never be tested, so why bother and hence the challenge of the scientific level.

 

[quicknote]

.

I would like to respond to the statement that another KT impact would cause another Snowball Earth. While it is true that a large impact event could potentially cause a significant cooling of the Earth's climate, resulting in a snowball Earth scenario, there are many factors that would need to be considered.

Firstly, the impact event would need to be of a similar magnitude to the one that occurred 65 million years ago. While it is possible for another impact of this size to occur, the likelihood is low. Furthermore, the location and angle of impact would also play a crucial role in determining the extent of the impact on the Earth's climate.

Secondly, the Earth's climate has changed significantly since the time of the dinosaurs. The atmosphere and oceans have undergone major shifts, and the Earth's climate system is much more complex and interconnected than it was during the Cretaceous period. This means that the effects of an impact event on the Earth's climate would not be the same as they were 65 million years ago.

Additionally, our understanding of the Earth's climate and its response to external events has improved greatly since the time of the dinosaurs. We now have advanced climate models and data that can help us predict and understand the potential impacts of an event like a large asteroid impact.

Overall, while it is possible that a large impact event could cause a significant cooling of the Earth's climate, resulting in a snowball Earth, it is not a certain outcome. The specific circumstances of the impact, as well as the current state of the Earth's climate, would play a significant role in determining the outcome. As scientists, it is important for us to continue studying and understanding the Earth's climate and its response to external events, in order to better prepare for and mitigate any potential impacts on our planet.