Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna Scientists say early humans doomed, too

Boston Globe ^ | September 27, 2007 | Colin Nickerson

[baynut]

Wooly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, and dozens of other species of megafauna may have become extinct when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, according to research by an international team of scientists.

The blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago, may have also doomed a mysterious early human culture, known as Clovis people, while triggering a planetwide cool-down that wiped out the plant species that sustained many outsize Ice Age beasts, according to research published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[Verginius Rufus]

Good timing for the announcement. This year is the 1500th anniversary of when Clovis’ people whipped the Visigoths at the battle of Vouille.

[Maynerd]

Yoo-Hoo, It was the world wide flood during Noah’s time, your only off by 6,000 years.

Do you also believe the sun revolves around the earth and the stars are lights from heaven?

[Tut]

They might not understand really big numbers back then. it might be, even talking in terms of “thousands” was fairly big numbers.

[DBrow]

I know, there is even a filk song about it- God wrote the rocks, men wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky, men wrote the Bible.

I think my point was, there are some that discount the findings of scientific inquiry because the Bible explains it all; and others who do not look in the Bible, but only go by the slow meanderings of science.

I see value in both approaches, since both are attempts to describe the world and explain what we see around us. Neither are perfect and neither are terribly accurate, but looking at both ways of seeing things helps explain people and their thoughts.

[SunkenCiv]

---

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

---

[SunkenCiv]

Research Team Says Extraterrestrial Impact To Blame For Ice Age Extinctions (More)
Eureka Alert | Northern Arizona University - Lisa Nelson
Posted on 09/25/2007 3:58:19 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1902003/posts

[SunkenCiv]

If this stuff happens only once every 1,000,000 years, as we are are repeatedly told -- isn't it strange that it seems to have happened only 1-100th of that length of time in our past?

Even if it happened like clockwork, it would merely mean that the next one won't happen for 990,000 years. :') Of course, the 1 myr estimate (and that's just one such) is merely an estimate, and the problem with the real clockwork is that it involves trillions of different clocks running on different schedules. (': I wholeheartedly agree, we do need more observatory capability.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Fred.

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[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Fred Nerks for the ping. Just adding, not sending a distribution, due to earlier topic. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[RightWhale]

This story seems to be everywhere in the news media. it might be a valid hypothesis, who knows, but it is rare for the media to adopt a science hypothesis so quickly across the board. Perhaps it is related to the upcoming launch of the Dawn spacecraft tomorrow.

[Dr.Deth]

If God didn’t want science he wouldn’t have given us brains.

[Bernard Marx]

* John McPhee "Basin and Range" as contained in...

Bryson's great but you really should read McPhee's entire 4-book Annals of a Former World series for a better understanding of Deep Time.

[colorado tanker]

This article doesn’t explain it, but their argument is that this impact caused the Younger Dryas event, which is a documented cool cycle. They argue the impact caused a massive melt in the glacier sheet that spilled into the Atlantic and shut down the Gulf Stream, thereby causing the event.

[LZ_Bayonet]

Don’t Comet-ize me, bro!

[itsamelman]

Thx for the tip... I’ll check it out.

[baynut]

No kidding. I understand the concept of averages. What you seem to miss is that it is highly unlikely that something that happens every “on average” once in a million years would have happened only 1-100 of that time in our past, immediately after which civilization began. Either it happens more frequently, or we are a result of the event itself, or a combination. Put another way, what is the likely-hood that our civilization followed immediately after the last extinction? We are a result of the event itself.

Or, if you like time lines. Envisage a time line reaching from the dinosaurs, in LA, to the present day, at Ground Zero in New York, this happened 6 block away or half a mile, not even across the Hudson river....

Consider that carefully.

[grey_whiskers]

"Women and Minorities Hardest Hit."

"Bush's Fault."

Cheers!

[JusPasenThru]

Do you also believe the sun revolves around the earth and the stars are lights from heaven?

Golly, why would anyone believe secular ancient Greek science these days? I don't think Ptolemy was no fundie.

[Maynerd]

I don't think Ptolemy was no fundie.

I agree, although the Pope thought it was worth censoring and threatening Galileo for upsetting the Greek/Aquinas applecart.

I find it sad that fundies view the scienfic method as a mortal threat to Christianity. IMHO Christianity can handle the big bang and evolution just fine.

[JusPasenThru]

I thought Copernicus was a Catholic priest. I’m sooooo confused.