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Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna Scientists say early humans doomed, too
Boston Globe ^ | September 25, 2007 | Colin Nickerson

Posted on 09/26/2007 6:11:48 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; clovis; comet; extinction; iceage
Stories regarding the evidence of this event continue to bounce around but attract very little national attention. We are told events like this happen only once in 1,000,000 years. This happened 1-100 of that time in the past. I can believe incredibly rare, or incredibly recent -- but not both -- in the context of the rise of human civilization. We need to reassess the threat from space. May be the threats to our future are not "all about us."
1 posted on 09/26/2007 6:11:54 AM PDT by baynut
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To: baynut

I was just reading my homeowners policy. It excludes “asteroids.”

I thought it was a joke at first.


2 posted on 09/26/2007 6:13:27 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: baynut

The universe seems to be one giant pinball machine?


3 posted on 09/26/2007 6:13:53 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: baynut

You mean to tell me it wasn’t dinosaur farts?


4 posted on 09/26/2007 6:15:54 AM PDT by Mygirlsmom (You Know Who knew there was poo on her Hsu but she wore it with a smile anyhoo)
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To: baynut
...when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs...

So, are they saying this was even worse than the effects of a Hummer H2?!

5 posted on 09/26/2007 6:18:43 AM PDT by 6SJ7
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To: baynut

The chicken little society lives....


6 posted on 09/26/2007 6:20:20 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: baynut
There is a chart online somewhere describing asteroid size and probability.

Worldkillers (or serious world changers) like Chicsulub are rare, but smaller ones like Tunguska more frequent.

The Wisconsin impact was not as big as Chix by a long shot.

I think the frequency of Tunguska-size hits was on the order of 10,000 years, but look it up, I’m probably off. anyway, the number of craters and ash layers and so forth indicates pretty good agreement with theory. We are finding new craters and other evidence (Madagascar Chevrons, Australian tektites, Araona Crater, and the like) that show that we getting whacked on a fairly regular basis.

Burckle Crater is on the sea floor in the Indian Ocean, it’s 20-30 KM in diameter, and is only 6,000 years old.

I’m upgrading my aluminum foil deflector beanie to a WWII steel pot!

7 posted on 09/26/2007 6:26:03 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: baynut

Fine. I didn’t want the Clovis moving into my neighborhood anyway.


8 posted on 09/26/2007 6:28:46 AM PDT by Thrownatbirth (.....when the sidewalks are safe for the little guy.)
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To: baynut

Hmmm
I guess the global cool down did not affect Wrangle Island where dwarf mammoths lived until 4,000 years ago.

All seems possible though. sh1t happens.


9 posted on 09/26/2007 6:30:03 AM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: baynut

I saw the headline and thought...

10 posted on 09/26/2007 6:30:22 AM PDT by MrEdd (Keeping my foot on the necks of liberals since 1980.)
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To: baynut
here you go-

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~bottke/Reprints/Ivanov-etal_2002_AstIII_Craters.pdf

Figure 6 has a good chart.

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec97/impactBlast.html

Tunguska-size to Barringer-size ranges from every 100 to every few thousand years.

The 1 million rate is for really big rocks like Chix, Manson, and Chesapeake (and maybe the new one under the ice in the Antarctic).

A predicted rate is not a rule that asteroids and comets must follow, it’s a “fit” based on observation of crater size and estimated age.

11 posted on 09/26/2007 6:35:27 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: baynut
Aw, that aint nothing. We just better hope we aren't in the way of a gamma-ray burst from a nearby binary neutron star collapse. No warning, and it would definately ruin our decade, not to mention our day..

BTW, anyone else watch the series "Mega Disasters"? Interesting stuff..

12 posted on 09/26/2007 7:05:42 AM PDT by Paradox (Politics: The art of convincing the populace that your delusions are superior to others.)
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To: TexasCajun
The universe seems to be one giant pinball machine?

We need to install a set of near-earth flippers...

;^)

13 posted on 09/26/2007 7:24:44 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW!)
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To: JimRed
Talking about 'We're Doomed'.

The History Channel had a show on last night about "cold".

Did you know the US has a freezer-bunker for frozen seeds?

That there is another freezer-bunker dug into the Norway frozen tundra for a World Seed Supply?

If humans are made extinct by Global Warming I don't know who would find and plant them?

14 posted on 09/26/2007 7:35:09 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: baynut
"...detritus was spread from California to Belgium"
Yet one more thing for the Europeans to blame on Americans.
"The blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago..."
Say, isn't that when the Sphinx ceased being weathered by falling water and the Sahara Desert spread over Egypt and the rest of North Africa?

"such a waggoner As Phaethon would whip you to the west"
~William Shakespeare"
(Through the character of Juliet)
Romeo and Juliet
Act III, Scene II

Maybe there's more to this Phaethon business than we thought!

15 posted on 09/26/2007 8:34:32 AM PDT by Savage Beast ("History is not just cruel. It is witty." ~Charles Krauthammer)
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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization

by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith


16 posted on 12/09/2007 10:19:20 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, December 10, 2007____________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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Did comet start deadly cold snap?
Canada.com | Monday, May 14, 2007 | Margaret Munro
Posted on 05/16/2007 6:00:33 PM EDT by Mike Darancette
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1834769/posts

Diamonds tell tale of comet that killed off the cavemen
Guardian | 5-20-07 | Robin McKie
Posted on 05/20/2007 7:50:33 PM EDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1836898/posts

Catastrophic Comet Chilled and Killed Ice Age Beasts (and Clovis people)
Live Science | 05/21/07 | Jeanna Bryner
Posted on 05/22/2007 1:16:48 AM EDT by TigerLikesRooster
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1837610/posts

Oregon Researchers Involved In New Clovis-Age Impact Theory (More)
Eureka Alert
Posted on 05/23/2007 5:30:19 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1838660/posts

Comet May Have Doomed Mammoths
Red Orbit | 5-26-07 | Betsy Mason
Posted on 05/26/2007 9:12:53 AM EDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1840136/posts

Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did A Comet Blow Up Over Eastern Canada? (More) (Carolina Bays)
Science News | 6-1-2007 | Sid Perkins
Posted on 06/02/2007 6:14:23 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843831/posts

Comet Theory Collides With Clovis Research, May Explain Disappearance of Ancient People
University of South Carolina(USC News) | June 28, 2007 | Staff
Posted on 08/04/2007 2:29:34 AM EDT by ForGod’sSake
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1876220/posts

NSF Press Release:
Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago
National Science Foundation Press Release | August 14, 2007 | Cheryl Dybas, NSF
Posted on 08/15/2007 8:32:04 PM EDT by baynut
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1881784/posts

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/f-chat/1902003/posts

Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna
Scientists say early humans doomed, too
Boston Globe | September 27, 2007 | Colin Nickerson
Posted on 09/25/2007 9:45:11 PM EDT by baynut
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1902154/posts

Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, October 9, 2007, Vol. 104 | Setember 27, 2007 | R. B. Firestone, et. al.
Posted on 09/30/2007 1:14:28 PM EDT by baynut
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1904474/posts

The End of Eden: The Comet That Changed Civilization
amazon | Oct. 8, 2007
Posted on 10/09/2007 2:47:23 AM EDT by doug from upland
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908525/posts


17 posted on 12/09/2007 10:20:43 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, December 10, 2007____________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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just adding it, not pingin' it.
 
Catastrophism
 
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic ·
 

18 posted on 12/09/2007 10:21:23 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, December 10, 2007____________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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19 posted on 05/02/2020 9:43:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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