Dave Jerrard | Super hurricane over Earth during the Ordovician Period @DaveJerrard | Uploaded 13 years ago | Updated 5 minutes ago
An orbital view of a super hurricane that could have been triggered by a gamma ray burst over 400 million years ago.
First it destroys the ozone layer, turning nitrogen into nitric oxide, which destroys ozone and create nitrogen dioxide, which reacts with oxygen to create more nitric oxide in the process... Within days, half the ozone would be destroyed. This lets UV radiation enter the lower atmosphere, where it causes other reactions, resulting in less heat being trapped in the atmosphere. Areas of the surface start to cool, causing large temperature differentials, which would cause huge storms & hurricanes. Eventually an ice age occurred (unlikely caused by the gamma ray burst, but by plate tectonics), which effectively ended the Ordovician period.
An orbital view of a super hurricane that could have been triggered by a gamma ray burst over 400 million years ago.
First it destroys the ozone layer, turning nitrogen into nitric oxide, which destroys ozone and create nitrogen dioxide, which reacts with oxygen to create more nitric oxide in the process... Within days, half the ozone would be destroyed. This lets UV radiation enter the lower atmosphere, where it causes other reactions, resulting in less heat being trapped in the atmosphere. Areas of the surface start to cool, causing large temperature differentials, which would cause huge storms & hurricanes. Eventually an ice age occurred (unlikely caused by the gamma ray burst, but by plate tectonics), which effectively ended the Ordovician period.
