Mars on Oct. 27 and 28, 2005 as the dust storm emerged.
Credit: Clay Sherrod, Arkansas Sky Observatories
Posted on 10/28/2005 6:33:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
COLUMBIA, S.C. - A supernova could be the "quick and dirty" explanation for what may have happened to an early North American culture, a nuclear scientist here said Thursday.
Richard Firestone said at the "Clovis in the Southeast" conference that he thinks "impact regions" on mammoth tusks found in Gainey, Mich., were caused by magnetic particles rich in elements like titanium and uranium. This composition, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist said, resembles rocks that were discovered on the moon and have also been found in lunar meteorites that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago.
Firestone said that, based on his discovery of similar material at Clovis sites, he estimates that comets struck the solar system during the Clovis period, which was roughly 13,000 years ago. These comets would have hit the Earth at 1,000 kilometers an hour, he said, obliterating many life forms and causing mutations in others.
"I'm not going to tell you that there's Clovis people on the moon, or that they had a space program," Firestone said. But these particles look "very much like the material that comes from the moon, which is the only place we've found with this same high titanium concentration."
Amateur archaeologist Richard Callaway said he was surprised by Firestone's theory.
"I've always considered myself a pretty open-minded person," Callaway said, while browsing some of the artifacts on display at the conference. "And it's kind of shocking to hear that something from the solar system could have done something like this."
Callaway, an Episcopal priest from Atlanta, said that he and his wife have volunteered at the Topper site in Allendale County for the past two summers.
"To be a part of this ... and find something no human being has touched in 15,000 years — that's something," Callaway said. "That's what I like about what we do. You don't find the next answer. You find the next question."
Earlier Thursday, University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear lectured on his discoveries at Topper, where he says he has found evidence that man existed in North America much earlier than previously thought. Goodyear showed slides of the many tools he has recovered from Topper, as well as a charcoal strip he discovered in soil two meters beneath a 16,000-year-old level of the site.
"Topper's like a box of chocolates," Goodyear said. "Every time we dig a hole, something new comes up."
As the final event of the four-day conference, partially sponsored by USC, Goodyear will lead attendees on a visit to Topper on Saturday.
Incoherent reporting. Firestone comes off as a crank but I think I'll wait for a better-written article before forming an opinion.
Mars on Oct. 27 and 28, 2005 as the dust storm emerged.
Credit: Clay Sherrod, Arkansas Sky Observatories
ping
So now a sports team named The Comets will be deemed racially Offensive!
You'd think this would have been mentioned in Poor Richard's Almanac.
Also, wouldn't there be obvious traces outside N.A.?
And what connection is implied by "a supernova" and "lunar meteorites" and a comet hitting the earth? Maybe he should restrict his language to math, instead of trying to speak English.
Or, was this a Babelfish translation from English to Manglish?
Right side image: The Mark of the Cosmic Turtle!
WE'RE DOOMED!
Or, maybe WE'RE SAVED!
Last time I saw that critter, rocket flames were coming out of the leg holes of his shell, and he was leaving Earth for Mars. Took him long enough to get there.
"Calling Monster Island; come in Monster Island; Godzirra, protect us! Over!"
"Comets Blasted Early Americans"
I thought they were finally going to tell us what happened to Virginia Dare and the lost colony.
2 words-----Immanuel Velikovsky
Bush's fault, right?
You DID check with the "Carl Sagan Cosmic Thought Police" before posting this didn't you?
"University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear lectured on his discoveries......"
Another good reason to be a Clemson Tiger fan.
I knew Bill Hailey's been around a long time but playing the Clovis gig?
I was gonna post this: Comets Hit Early Americans, Scientists Say, but, a search revealed that you already had.
Now, you should have pinged me. No-one enjoys a good catastrophe as good as me.
Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, in one of his books, suggests that it may have been comet impacts that began the end of the last Ice Age.
Wouldn't there be some tribes with a Kaboom in their legends?
Clovis Speakers Discuss Man's Origins In The United States
"In recent years, many experts have begun to consider other explanations, such as migration from Europe, and not Asia."
*
Read the Bible.
but where's the kaboom? i expected an earth shattering kaboom! [marvin the martian]
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