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Scientists find signs of 13,000-year-old extinction event
Chicago Tribune ^ | January 2, 2009 | Robert Mitchum

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 nanodiamonds—microscopic particles thought to be found on comets—in 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 humans—an early hunter-gatherer society—also 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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; clovis; clovisimpact; comet; globalcooling; godsgravesglyphs; impact; megafaunaextinction; nanodiamonds; oldearthspeculation; science
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1 posted on 01/01/2009 2:09:19 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Thanks for posting the article.


“The possibility of a comet causing catastrophic climate change and extinction relatively recently in Earth’s long history suggests scientists shouldn’t dismiss the possibility of it happening again, West said.”

One reason the NEAR observatories have been built all over the world.


2 posted on 01/01/2009 2:16:53 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (The Last Boy Scout)
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To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
Exposing Obama's Genome - And Oprah Winfrey's, Brad Pitts', and yours

Can aircraft trails affect climate?

Diabetes can slow the brain, study finds

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Happy New Year!

3 posted on 01/01/2009 2:21:11 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: UCANSEE2
This was one of the best science stories of the year. It explained the near extinction of the Clovis culture, the elimination of saber toothed tigers and mastadons, the clogging of the St. Lawrence valley with ice (from the break up of the residual icecap in Canada), the Younger Dryas event, and most of all, why there was gold on top of the hills in Southern Indiana (rather than down in the valleys or deep inside the hillsides like it normally is everywhere else on Earth).

Ain't every day you get one like that!

4 posted on 01/01/2009 2:22:49 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: neverdem

Sounds plausible to me.

Something has to explain the posies in the stomachs of the mammoths found in the ice.

And the coal found on the East coast of the US. Like a rumpled rug, the surface of the earth folded in upon itself. The surface, covered in vegetation and thick tree trunks, made the veins of coal we mine today.

Flash fire made it charcoal and then it was buried deep.


5 posted on 01/01/2009 2:24:35 PM PST by Battle Axe (Repent for the coming of the Lord is nigh!)
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To: neverdem

bump for later


6 posted on 01/01/2009 2:26:58 PM PST by randomhero97 ("First you want to kill me, now you want to kiss me. Blow!" - Ash)
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To: neverdem
"When most archeologists heard about it they were somewhat dismissive," Amick said. "We would think, 'How in the world could we have missed this?"

lol...spoken as if they've never missed anything before.

7 posted on 01/01/2009 2:33:25 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: neverdem

Basically, that would mean one impact caused it (Ontario Impact), and one ended it (Quebec Air Blast) 2500 years later...


8 posted on 01/01/2009 2:40:23 PM PST by xcamel (The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. - H. L. Mencken)
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To: muawiyah
This was one of the best science stories of the year.

Yes. And a whole lot likelier than global warming from SUV's.

9 posted on 01/01/2009 2:41:10 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (The Last Boy Scout)
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To: UCANSEE2
One reason the NEAR observatories have been built all over the world.

We'll probably get just enough warning for a quick trip to the liquor store.

I think that these events happen more often than we'd like to imagine, last one 1908.

10 posted on 01/01/2009 2:41:30 PM PST by Mike Darancette
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To: Mr. Mojo
lol...spoken as if they've never missed anything before.

Hey, we do the best we can. This stuff isn't as easy as it looks!

11 posted on 01/01/2009 2:44:41 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: UCANSEE2

If one shows up, I hope Morgan Freeman is president rather than THE ONE.


12 posted on 01/01/2009 2:45:00 PM PST by RobbyS (ECCE homo)
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To: neverdem

So we have Yellowstone, and several other supervolcanoes around the world, Comets, Asteroids, lions tigers and bears oh no, and our prime worry is supposed to be non-existent AGW? LOL!


13 posted on 01/01/2009 2:45:14 PM PST by HerrBlucher
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To: neverdem
... 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.

Exculpatory evidence that my ancestors were not at fault.

14 posted on 01/01/2009 2:52:40 PM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
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To: Coyoteman
This one indeed looks like the "smoking bullet" — nanodiamonds and millions of fossils of the large mammals all found in the 13,000 year strata, and only in that layer. Proof, no. But I'd bet on it.
15 posted on 01/01/2009 2:56:49 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: neverdem

Only 20 days left to say “Bush’s Fault!”


16 posted on 01/01/2009 3:00:07 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Mr. Mojo
This one indeed looks like the "smoking bullet" — nanodiamonds and millions of fossils of the large mammals all found in the 13,000 year strata, and only in that layer. Proof, no. But I'd bet on it.

I agree, tt does look good. Archaeologists and other scientists have been wondering what reversed the glacial retreat for decades.

17 posted on 01/01/2009 3:01:19 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: neverdem

Was it brought in by an SUV? Or did it come on its own? Or did the humans do something that did climate change?


18 posted on 01/01/2009 3:14:52 PM PST by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the Royal 100 Club)
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To: muawiyah; neverdem

Yup.

The early explorers/gold miners in Alaska were amazed to find what has been called “muck”.

Hard pack of mud, plant debris, and bones, mashed together and mixed up like it had gone through a cosmic blender.

More and more evidence to support the theory that there was some kind of cataclysmic event, maybe not worldwide, but a large part of it focused on northern North America, that coincided with the beginning of the end of the last ice age.


19 posted on 01/01/2009 3:15:16 PM PST by djf (< Tagline closed until further notice. Awaiting bailout >)
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To: neverdem
Comet may have exploded over planet, causing fires, die-offs, researchers say

LOL

operative word, "may have"

20 posted on 01/01/2009 3:17:01 PM PST by org.whodat (Conservatives don't vote for Bailouts for Super-Rich Bankers! Republicans do!)
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