Study casts doubt on mammoth-killing cosmic impact [what, again?!? /s]

Phys dot org ^ | January 06, 2015 | editors

[SunkenCiv]

Rock soil droplets formed by heating most likely came from Stone Age house fires and not from a disastrous cosmic impact 12,900 years ago, according to new research from the University of California, Davis. The study, of soil from Syria, is the latest to discredit the controversial theory that a cosmic impact triggered the Younger Dryas cold period.

The Younger Dryas lasted a thousand years and coincided with the extinction of mammoths and other great beasts and the disappearance of the Paleo-Indian Clovis people. In the 1980s, some researchers put forward the idea that the cool period, which fell between two major glaciations, began when a comet or meteorite struck North America.

In the new study, published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science, scientists analyzed siliceous scoria droplets -- porous granules associated with melting -- from four sites in northern Syria dating back 10,000 to 13,000 years ago. They compared them to similar scoria droplets previously suggested to be the result of a cosmic impact at the onset of the Younger Dryas.

"For the Syria side, the impact theory is out," said lead author Peter Thy, a project scientist in the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. "There's no way that can be done." ...

So if not resulting from a cosmic impact, where did the scoria droplets come from? House fires. The study area of Syria was associated with early agricultural settlements along the Euphrates River. Most of the locations include mud-brick structures, some of which show signs of intense fire and melting. The study concludes that the scoria formed when fires ripped through buildings made of a mix of local soil and straw.

[SunkenCiv]

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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith

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[SunkenCiv]

Cue the Looney Toons theme, no reason.

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[SunkenCiv]

Stone age house fires created the evidence, sez this team of geniuses.

[Sacajaweau]

What they need is more grant money to solve this mystery which cannot and thus...will never be solved.

[rstrahan]

You cannot get an ‘intense’ fire from a mud-and-straw building. The straw is encased in the mud, and the wooden beams will burn, but slowly.

‘Gee, this impact does not fit my scenario, so I will find a way to discredit it.’

[rarestia]

Smoke from human fires in the soil? It was probably global warming and overhunting of the species that killed off the mammoths. We humans are a destructive species with no regard for life.

/sarc

[SunkenCiv]

I’m sure the various so-called studies that have already purported to disprove the Clovis impact model — none of them have been worth a crap — came about in part to shore up the global warming hoax; regardless, they’ll get more attention (not necessarily grant money) for themselves and future research and their careers if they link their ‘research’ to something already well known.

[MaxMax]

My theory is that Dino farts were so intense that the friction would cause
the farts to ignite. They killed themselves in the process of discovering Black bean
plants and Cabbage.

[central_va]

Bush’s fault.

[uglybiker]

The Younger Dryas lasted a thousand years and coincided with the extinction of mammoths ...began when a comet or meteorite struck North America.

Something that big would've left a crater.

Where is it?

[rarestia]

I worked with an IT professional who majored in geology in college. He used to tell me stories about field research outings where his professors (plural) would reward students who could find data to support theories about man’s impact on the planet and the decline thereof. It’s mindboggling how this is allowed to pass as science.

[BroJoeK]

rstrahan: "You cannot get an ‘intense’ fire from a mud-and-straw building.
The straw is encased in the mud, and the wooden beams will burn, but slowly."

You might want to consider some of the article's conclusions:

• "The composition of the scoria droplets was related to the local soil, not to soil from other continents, as one would expect from an intercontinental impact.

• "The texture of the droplets, thermodynamic modeling and other analyses showed the droplets were formed by short-lived heating events of modest temperatures, and not by the intense, high temperatures expected from a large impact event.

• "And in a key finding, the samples collected from archaeological sites spanned 3,000 years.
  'If there was one cosmic impact,' Thy said, 'they should be connected by one date and not a period of 3,000 years.'. "

[T. P. Pole]

Oh, I get it. This is their response to the climate change deniers. “See, in the past humans caused climate change and mass extinctions” to cover for our query about cave men’s SUVs.

[BwanaNdege]

...overhunting of the species that killed off the mammoths. We humans are a destructive species with no regard for life.

What do you mean "no regard for life"?

Those of us who DO have a high regard for animal life have formed "P.E.T.A." (People Eating Tasty Animals) The world's FIRST great technology made this possible!

The SECOND made made it delightful!

The THIRD split us into waring tribes!

[huldah1776]

According to this article the woolies survived on an island up to 3600 years ago. Which begs me to question exactly why would a mammal covered in fur, die from the cold except for lack of food. I bet they died from global warming because they overheated with those coats on.

http://io9.com/5896262/the-last-mammoths-died-out-just-3600-years-agobut-they-should-have-survived

this was a friday silliness post.

[BroJoeK]

uglybiker: "Something that big would've left a crater. Where is it?"

More info on the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis:

• "The Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis, also known as the Clovis comet hypothesis, is one of the competing scientific explanations for the onset of the Younger Dryas cold period.
  The hypothesis, which scientists continue to debate, proposes that the climate of that time was cooled by the impact or air burst of one or more comets..[1][2][3]

• "Though no major impact crater has been identified, the proponents suggest that it would be physically possible for such an air burst to have been similar to but orders of magnitude larger than the Tunguska event of 1908.[5][6]
  The hypothesis proposed that animal and human life in North America not directly killed by the blast or the resulting wildfires would have suffered due to the disrupted ecologic relationships affecting the continent...

• "Recent evidence continues to oppose the YDB impact hypothesis.
  New research, which analyzed sediments claimed, by the hypothesis proponents, to be deposits resulting from a bolide impact were, in fact, dated from much later or much earlier time periods than the proposed date of the cosmic impact..." etc., etc.

Bottom line: this particular explanation -- Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis -- is not doing so well, seems headed for the scientific dust-bin.

[moovova]

House fires? Civilization hasn't come very far...

"Panthers coach Ron Rivera and family OK after fire at their Charlotte home early Monday"

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yeah, but wouldn’t haloes home owners had a house full of wood furniture, fine draperies, lots of clothes, all combustible? ; >)

The hypothesis of mud/straw walls being combustible is just stupid. Maybe they were doing large scale burn-offs of field stubble post-harvest like is done today.

[Malone LaVeigh]

Something that big would've left a crater. Where is it?

I don't really keep up on this stuff, but I recall that at one time they speculated that it could be ...

[Lazamataz]

The Younger Dryas lasted a thousand years and coincided with the extinction of mammoths ...began when a comet or meteorite struck North America.

Something that big would've left a crater. Where is it?

My face.