Posted on 01/01/2009 2:09:17 PM PST by neverdem
Comet may have exploded over planet, causing fires, die-offs, researchers say
A meteorite colliding with the Earth 65 million years ago is considered to be the most likely reason dinosaurs vanished from the planet. Now a team of scientists says it has found new evidence that an object from space caused a similar extinction event only 13,000 years ago.
In an article to be published Friday in the journal Science, researchers present what one author calls the "smoking bullet"proof that an exploding comet triggered the sudden, thousand-year freeze that killed off mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and other large mammals that used to live in North America.
Working at multiple sites across the continent, researchers found nanodiamondsmicroscopic particles thought to be found on cometsin a 13,000-year-old layer of carbon-rich soil.
The authors, led by University of Oregon anthropologist Douglas Kennett, theorize that the comet exploded above the Earth's surface, raining fragments upon North America and starting fires across the continent. That would have ushered in an abrupt global cooling and caused the "megafauna" extinction.
In the layer with the nanodiamonds, fossils of the large mammals are abundant. After that layer, they disappear, said Allen West, an Arizona geophysicist and one of the paper's authors.
"It's extraordinary that tens of millions of animals disappeared synchronously at exactly the time when the diamonds and carbon layer are laid down across the continent," West said.
West said the event also would have affected human populations of the time. Artifacts from the Clovis culture of humansan early hunter-gatherer societyalso disappear after the 13,000-year layer, suggesting they, too, were killed off by the comet or its aftereffects.
Many archeologists remain skeptical of the comet theory, said Daniel Amick, an associate professor of anthropology at Loyola University Chicago who studies the Clovis culture.
"When most archeologists heard...,"
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
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Thanks neverdem for the topic (which is an update), and thanks to Blam for the pings. |
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Happy New Year to you too.
See the links in post #40.
Ya thunk? Why stop just because he's not there?
Science is all about theories. There is no higher level of explanation. As Heinlein noted:
Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.
A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts [1980:480-182].
And don't cite "laws." Theories explain laws.
I am rather sensitive to this terminology because the "its just a theory" nonsense is generally promoted by those who have little interest in science, but a lot of interest in pushing their particular religious belief at the expense of science. If you do not fall into this category, then my apologies in advance.
But this particular archaeological discovery may just be the "smoking gun" to explain a lot of different things that have puzzled us for decades.
bump
Y2K all over again!
The Carolina Bays are discussed in considerable detail in Fireston’s fascinating book shown in Comment #37. The article also mentions signs of the comet having exploded over the Chicago area. Actually, Firestone’s book shows a view of Lake Michigan indicating that two objects may have crashed into the lake. After looking closely it seemed to me that there would have been 3 objects with the smaller one between to two larger ones. Look at a regular map and you can see the rounded edges. The alignment of many of the eliptical bays converge on that general area as well.
Happy New Year to all my fellow scientifically interested FReepers. It is a fascinating world out there.
BTW, I was a K off -- these folks refer to "nano-" (not "micro-") diamonds... '-)
No, I know very little about that area.
More intellectually honest than, "'did'. ...because I say that is what the Bible says..."
Can’t be right. Man is blame for all things. Always.
And only Gore can save us.
As to the big blast are what ever caused an extension event, I believe it to be BS and it is not supported by fossil records..
to you, blam, Coyoteman -- and all the rest of us folks who "dig this old stuff"...!
Happy New Year to all you guys too.
Happy New Year to you too.
Carolina Bays
Happy New Year, blam, how are the labs?
Inherited a 250lb English Mastiff, wow, what a dog.
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