Abstract
Durrani and Khan1 suggest that microtektites obtained from ocean sediments near Australia and the Ivory Coast may be the result of impacts of comets with the Earth. They measured the ages of the microtektites obtained from the two regions and determined the ages at 0.71 ± 0.1 and 0.88 ± 0.13 m.y., respectively, for Australasian and Ivory Coast tektites. These ages agree closely with the dates of two of the reversals of the geomagnetic field, and this close agreement is interpreted by them as suggesting that the microtektites and magnetic reversals have resulted from impacts of comets with the Earth.
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References
Durrani, S. A., and Khan, H. A., Nature, 232, 320 (1971).
Russel, H. N., Dugan, R. S., and Stewart, J. Q., Astronomy, second ed., 1, 447 (Ginn, Boston, 1945).
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KELLNER, H., YABUSHITA, S. Are Microtektites the Result of Cometary Impacts with the Earth ?. Nature 235, 383 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/235383a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/235383a0
