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Muon Radiation Dose and Marine Megafaunal Extinction at the end-Pliocene Supernova

Adrian L. Melott, Franciole Marinho, Laura Paulucci
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/240093
Adrian L. Melott
aDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 USA
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Franciole Marinho
bUniversidade Federal de Sâo Carlos, Rodovia Anhanguera, km 174, 13604-900, Araras, SP, Brazil
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Laura Paulucci
cUniversidade Federal do ABC, Av. dos Estados, 5001, 09210-170, Santo André, SP, Brazil
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ABSTRACT

Considerable data and analysis support the detection of a supernova at a distance of about 50 pc, ~2.6 million years ago. This is possibly related to the extinction event around that time and is a member of a series of explosions which formed the Local Bubble in the interstellar medium. We build on the assumptions made in previous work, and propagate the muon flux from supernova-initiated cosmic rays from the surface to the depths of the ocean. We find that the radiation dose from the muons will exceed the total present surface dose from all sources at depths up to a kilometer and will persist for at least the lifetime of marine megafauna. It is reasonable to hypothesize that this increase in radiation load may have contributed to a newly documented marine megafaunal extinction at that time.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted December 28, 2017.
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Muon Radiation Dose and Marine Megafaunal Extinction at the end-Pliocene Supernova
Adrian L. Melott, Franciole Marinho, Laura Paulucci
bioRxiv 240093; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/240093
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Muon Radiation Dose and Marine Megafaunal Extinction at the end-Pliocene Supernova
Adrian L. Melott, Franciole Marinho, Laura Paulucci
bioRxiv 240093; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/240093

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