EROSION OF TERRESTRIAL PLANET ATMOSPHERE BY SURFACE MOTION AFTER A LARGE IMPACT

The history of atmosphere accretion has a large significance in the evolution of the Earth and other planets. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the Earth's response to large impacts (in the 10^(32)–10^(38) erg energy range), and the resulting atmosphere loss owing to the global radial surface motion. Our results show that it is possible to deplete the Earth's atmosphere via this mechanism in very large (lunar-sized, ∼ 10^(38) erg) impacts.