BANG FOR THE BUCK
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_causes; http://en.wikipedia.org/Wilkes_Land_crater; http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/overview.html; http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/erthboom.htm; http://tulane.edu/~sanelson/Natural_Disasters/impact.htm)
There’ve been five big ones that we know
That dealt a cataclysmic blow
To life existing on the earth
And one to which the moon gave birth.
It’s speculated early two
Occurred when earth grew hot then cooled
So melting, freezing glacial mass
Caused ocean level changes vast.
The first when life was water-bound.
Four-fifty million or around.
One hundred million more went by
Till death to species wet and dry.
The third and greatest of them all –
Result of meteoric fall
That dwarfed the last when dinosaurs
And other large ones ceased their roars.
Next hundred million had elapsed
When earth received a cosmic blast
From fifty thousand meter wide
Impactor. All life almost dies.
Unlike Chicxulub’s smoking gun
(Ten thousand meters – smaller one)
That rendered dinosaurs extinct,
Where lay the monster crater’s print?
It seems Antarctica was once
As other continents as lush,
When struck by messenger of doom
Whose crater, now ‘neath ice shelf, looms.
And don’t forget the one between
When spreading mid-Atlantic seam
Spewed lava in amounts immense
That warmed the earth again to death.
Mere fifty million after third
That had Antarctic land disturbed.
Then hundred million plus until
Most famous dinosauran kill.
But back when earth was very young,
It had its bell completely rung
By Mars-sized Theia that became
A part of earth we know today.
It likely gave the earth its spin
And tilted it to where it’s been.
Ejecta into orbit hurled
To form the moon, earth’s sister world.
Would earth have life without the moon,
For it enabled cosmic tune
To play in harmony that led
To life instead of planet dead?
But, as we see, there’s give and take.
You cannot have and eat your cake.
For what from cataclysm rose
May end in matching deathly throes.
The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from a collision between the Earth and a body the size of Mars, approximately 4.5 billion years ago. The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, for the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the Moon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/Giant_impact_hypothesis)
Author Bio:
I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.