Evidence from Chile Supports Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Hypothesis

science news ^ | 20mar19 | Editorial staff

[vannrox]

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, also known as Clovis comet hypothesis, posits that the hemisphere-wide debris field of a large, disintegrating asteroid (or comet) struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia approximately 12,800 years ago. This event triggered extensive biomass burning, brief impact winter, climate change, and contributed to extinctions of late Pleistocene megafauna. Controversial from the time it was proposed, this hypothesis continues to be contested by those who prefer to attribute the end-Pleistocene reversal in (global) warming entirely to terrestrial causes. Now, University of California, Santa Barbara’s Professor James Kennett and co-authors present further geologic and paleontological evidence of the cosmic impact, this time far south of the equator.

[vannrox]

Interesting bump

[beebuster2000]

fascinating. and 12,000 years ago wasn’t that long in archaeological time. sounds like the impact and burn area was more than a couple thousand miles across. yikes.

[Rebelbase]

Cool read. In the end we are but dust in the wind.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[BenLurkin]

Chili today, hot tamale.

[going hot]

And next wok?

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[BenLurkin]

"[A] ‘black mat’ layer, 12,800 years in age, that coincided with the disappearance of South American Pleistocene megafauna fossils, an abrupt shift in regional vegetation and a disappearance of human artifacts.

Ouch!

[BenLurkin]

Going to the dogs.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

LIES! LIES! LIES!
EVERYONE KNOWS WHITE MEN CAUSED THE YOUNGER DRYAS CATASTROPHE!
IT’S SETTLED SCIENCE!

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. This is very interesting and important.

[JimRed]

The word extraterrestrial is seldom deemed to mean a comet or asteroid, but rather the little green (or grey) men from elsewhere. The headline led me to think that would be the thrust of the article.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks vannrox. See also the recent find of a Greenland impact of that date.

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[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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[Political Junkie Too]

How do we know that asteroid wasn't aimed at us, hmmmmm? 👽

-PJ

[SunkenCiv]

• The Day the World Burned [2019]
• Ice cores reveal huge solar storm struck Earth around 660 BC [2019]
• Scientists Find Possible Second Subglacial Impact Crater in Northwest Greenland [2019]
• Geoscientists Find Large Impact Crater in Greenland [2018]
• Massive crater under Greenland's ice points to climate-altering impact in the time of humans [2018]
• Air Force silent after 2-kiloton meteor hits Earth near base (Thule AFB, Greenland) [2018]
• Air Force says no damage from Greenland meteor [2018]
• Air Force remains silent after huge meteor hits near US military base [2018]
• How Greenland scorched its underside [2018]
• Ancient Greenland was much warmer than previously thought [2018]
• Evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 y ago [2013]

[PIF]

The finding in more detail

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-38089-y

[nicollo]

I don’t see the causation in this. Perhaps.

Regardless, it doesn’t seem to be more causal than the theory that ice melt and North American fresh water sea creation caused dramatic cooling, which makes sense to me.

[SunkenCiv]

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