Does Dark Matter Cause Mass Extinctions?

A controversial theory claims that a thin disk of Dark Matter along the galactic plane is able to dislodge comets and create havoc on Earth. Let’s take a look with open data.

After I moved to Canada in 2014, I started to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a regular basis for work. On my first flight back home, I noticed a really weird feature situated somewhere in north of the St Lawrence river. Not having an internet connection available right away, I had to wait until we landed to find out it was called the Manicouagan Reservoir, an annular lake created by the impact of an asteroid about 215 million years ago (MYA). It was probably the first time I realized impact craters are a real thing and can sometimes spotted easily if you know where to look.

Manicouagan Reservoir is an annular lake in central Quebec, Canada. The structure was created 214 (±1) million years ago by the impact of a meteorite of five km diameter. The lake and island are clearly seen from space and are sometimes called the “eye of Quebec”.

North America is a really big and often poorly inhabited territory. It’s only in the past century or so that people (or at least…white people) have realized the presence of incredibly ancient structures caused by celestial objects literally fallen from the sky. The reader may be familiar with the Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona, or with legends of Native Americans that can be interpreted as real impact or near-miss events. There is a long-standing debate about the possibility that the first…