Ancient meteorite was ‘giant fertilizer bomb’ for life on Earth

By Will Dunham – Yahoo News

The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period caused a global calamity that doomed the dinosaurs and many other life forms. But that was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet.

One up to 200 times bigger landed 3.26 billion years ago, triggering worldwide destruction at an even greater scale. But, as new research shows, that disaster actually may have been beneficial for the early evolution of life by serving as “a giant fertilizer bomb” for the bacteria and other single-celled organisms called archaea that held dominion at the time, providing access to the key nutrients phosphorous and iron.