Could a 'super flare' event have created the iridium layer?

[Roun_Soun]

I guess another part of the question would be; how much energy would it take to scramble the ozone layer?

If there was a 'super flare' that could take down the ozone layer and let high energy solar particles to the surface of the earth, what would be the by-product? What effect could high energy solar radiation have on soil, rocks, elements in the atmosphere?

For the record: This has nothing to do with 2012

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Colud a 'super flare' event have created the iridium layer?

No, Iridium is not a component of solar flare particles, nor of the earth's atmosphere. The only source that provides any enhancement here on the surface is asteroids and comets.

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[neilsox]

I agree with MeteorWayne: Our sun (and Earth's atmosphere) apparently have very little iridium, and there is is almost no evidence that iridium is fused from other elements in solar flares. How many micrograms per square meter is typically contained in the iridium layer?
Ordinary solar flares scramble the ozone layer slightly, and produce some more ozone, so a super flare would scramble the ozone layer significantly and perhaps double the amount of ozone, short term, if the super flare made a direct hit on Earth. Most flares and coronal mass ejections miss or barely graze the Earth. Neil