From the University of California – Santa Barbara
Study finds new evidence supporting theory of extraterrestrial impact
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– An 18-member international team of researchers that includes James Kennett, professor of earth science at UC Santa Barbara, has discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material –– which dates back nearly 13,000 years –– was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth.
These new data are the latest to strongly support the controversial Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) hypothesis, which proposes that a cosmic impact occurred 12,900 years ago at the onset of an unusual cold climatic period called the Younger Dryas. This episode occurred at or close to the time of major extinction of the North American megafauna, including mammoths and giant ground sloths; and the disappearance of the prehistoric and widely distributed Clovis culture. The researchers’ findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“These scientists have identified three contemporaneous levels more than 12,000 years ago, on two continents yielding siliceous scoria-like objects (SLO’s),” said H. Richard Lane, program director of National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. “SLO’s are indicative of high-energy cosmic airbursts/impacts, bolstering the contention that these events induced the beginning of the Younger Dryas. That time was a major departure in biotic, human and climate history.”
Microscopic Images of Grains of Melted Quartz
Morphological and geochemical evidence of the melt-glass confirms that the material is not cosmic, volcanic, or of human-made origin. “The very high temperature melt-glass appears identical to that produced in known cosmic impact events such as Meteor Crater in Arizona, and the Australasian tektite field,” said Kennett.
“The melt material also matches melt-glass produced by the Trinity nuclear airburst of 1945 in Socorro, New Mexico,” he continued. “The extreme temperatures required are equal to those of an atomic bomb blast, high enough to make sand melt and boil.”
The material evidence supporting the YDB cosmic impact hypothesis spans three continents, and covers nearly one-third of the planet, from California to Western Europe, and into the Middle East. The discovery extends the range of evidence into Germany and Syria, the easternmost site yet identified in the northern hemisphere. The researchers have yet to identify a limit to the debris field of the impact.
Photos of Melt Glass Known as Trinitite
“Because these three sites in North America and the Middle East are separated by 1,000 to 10,000 kilometers, there were most likely three or more major impact/airburst epicenters for the YDB impact event, likely caused by a swarm of cosmic objects that were fragments of either a meteorite or comet,” said Kennett.
The PNAS paper also presents examples of recent independent research that supports the YDB cosmic impact hypothesis, and supports two independent groups that found melt-glass in the YDB layers in Arizona and Venezuela. “The results strongly refute the assertion of some critics that ‘no one can replicate’ the YDB evidence, or that the materials simply fell from space non-catastrophically,” Kennett noted.
He added that the archaeological site in Syria where the melt-glass material was found –– Abu Hureyra, in the Euphrates Valley –– is one of the few sites of its kind that record the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers to farmer-hunters who live in permanent villages. “Archeologists and anthropologists consider this area the ‘birthplace of agriculture,’ which occurred close to 12,900 years ago,” Kennett said.
“The presence of a thick charcoal layer in the ancient village in Syria indicates a major fire associated with the melt-glass and impact spherules 12,900 years ago,” he continued. “Evidence suggests that the effects on that settlement and its inhabitants would have been severe.”
Other scientists contributing to the research include Ted Bunch and James H. Wittke of Northern Arizona University; Robert E. Hermes of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Andrew Moore of the Rochester Institute of Technology; James C. Weaver of Harvard University; Douglas J. Kennett of Pennsylvania State University; Paul S. DeCarli of SRI International; James L. Bischoff of the U.S. Geological Survey; Gordon C. Hillman of the University College London; George A. Howard of Restoration Systems; David R. Kimbel of Kimstar Research; Gunther Kletetschka of Charles University in Prague, and of the Czech Academy of Science; Carl Lipo and Sachiko Sakai of California State University, Long Beach; Zsolt Revay of the Technical University of Munich in Germany; Allen West of GeoScience Consulting; and Richard B. Firestone of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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Trinity nuclear airburst of 1945 WAS NOT in Socorro.
I’m probably wrong that the might be from this event, but if you use Google Earth and look over the multitudinous glacial lakes in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, you will see quite a few that are round, with central peaks. (and one very large feature on the Wisconsin side of the Minnesota border that looks very much like an eroded, filled, and re-eroded crater)
After a hiatus of about 2000 years the deglaciation then continued causing widespread flooding, and commencing the period known as the Younger Wetass period.
See Don Easterbrook‘s graphs and publications on the Younger Dryas. e.g., Lessons from past global climate changes, and The Looming Threat of Global Cooling: Geologic Evidence for Prolonged Cooling Ahead and Its Impact
The impact would have dramatically affected human survivors.
Curiously, the oldest known human-made religious structure, Göbekli Tepe, was built around 12,000 years ago, about 20 miles from the Syrian border.
Could this event itself be the cause of the “melt-water pulse”? http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7042/abs/nature03617.html
Did it hit on Tuesday? (with apologies to Niven & Pournelle)
Vince Causey says:
June 13, 2012 at 4:09 am
“. . . . . Implications: we are now due for the next ice age.”
Give or take a few years:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/03/next-peak-of-ice-age-year-60000-ad.html
mitchel44,
If one of the primary impact zones was the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Great Lakes region as some suspect, then a natural consequence of the sudden melting of so much ice would be just such a meltwater pulse into the North Atlantic, and Arctic Ocean. And if a large percentage of the ice was flashed to steam, I wonder how long it would take it to presipitate back out of the atmosphere as rain. But I’m thinkin’ 40 days, and 40 nights, of torrential rains sounds sounds about right.
Faux Science Slayer says:June 13, 2012 at 9:03 am
I like your idea of a chunk of dry ice causing the instantaneous freezing. Actually any frozen gas would do that. It seems like a good solution to the extreme temperature change.
J Crew says:
June 13, 2012 at 6:14 am
“Has anyone else noticed . . . ”
The history of “catastrophism” and “uniformitarianism” in science cannot be separated from religion. Very briefly, creation by a god implies one should see results that could be called catastrophic. Ancient Earth or “deep time” provides an alternative of slow and steady developments, such as sedimentation. With the religious overtones removed it became acceptable to consider significant rapid events – catastrophes.
Consider this as an example:
“Geologist J Harlen Bretz first recognized evidence of the catastrophic floods, which he called the Spokane Floods, in the 1920s.
. . .
Bretz’s view, which was seen as arguing for a catastrophic explanation of the geology, ran against the prevailing view of uniformitarianism, and Bretz’s views were initially held in disregard.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods
@Tucci78 at 4:23 am
Many thanks for the “Minus Ten and Counting” link.
The song title to the lyrics you posted is “Sentries”
At 11:34 AM on 13 June. Stephen Rasey had written:
Yep. I simply forgot to list the name of the filksong itself. Thanks for filling in my unnoticed blank.
John Marshall says:
Very interesting. I agree with Vince, above, in that the natural climate cycle was interrupted. It is certainly cold here in the UK and June already. The UK Met. Office blame the jet stream.
—
John, as scientists involved in climate change research keep pointing out to lay persons (and global warming doubters), climate is not weather. Coldness in a particular area does not indicate a change as great as global cooling, nor does warmer weather over the world or particular areas indicate global warming. Change over very long periods, such as centuries, not decades, indicate long-term trends:
“Empirical measurements of the Earth’s heat content show the planet is still accumulating heat and global warming is still happening. Surface temperatures can show short-term cooling when heat is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean, which has a much greater heat capacity than the air.” http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling.htm
——–
Vince Causey said:
“Which means that the Younger Dryas was not part of a “natural rythm”, that the natural rythm induced ice age ended 20,000 years ago and not 12,000 years ago. Implications: we are now due for the next ice age.”
Thank you John F. Hultquist, for finding the science on ice age trends:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/03/next-peak-of-ice-age-year-60000-ad.html
Mr. Causey’s statement is an example of the kind of thinking – supposition of causation from scant and/or irrelevant evidence – that helps spread myths about climate change, because it is not science-based. Those who don’t trust or understand how science works, however, may take up such notions and spread them, because they fit into their “commonsense” notions of global warming/climate change. Notions like this are common among global warming doubters, and spread in the conservative “echo chamber” (of which the WUWT blog is one example) rapidly …which is partly why it is so named.
Is there a need for perhaps considered “common sense” in climate science? Many posts here and elsewhere, as well as opinions frequently found in various media outlets, test climate science against the author’s “common sense” – and find the climate science wanting. This tantamount to Ludditeism: destroying the machinery of modern science.
There is an all-knowing Grand Climate Priest – Joe (??) the meteorologist and clearly uber-qualified climate science commentator, who appears periodically on Fox News ;-)). (Sorry, the man’s name escapes me – I don’t watch Fox.) He has used “common sense” and his meteorological knowledge to refute the best science accumulated by years of research by 98% of climate scientists.
There may be some “common sense” that applies to climate science – but it only applies in the context of the evidence and the science. However, in general, climate science is so complex that it requires years of study to obtain a degree in a related field, and years of research to determine trends and causation, correlated with the vast body of existing research. Moreover, the science would not be possible without advanced computers. There is little “common sense” involved in programming such computers, as they require advance technical and scientific knowledge far beyond “common sense.”
It’s true that no science is “settled,” since any evidence truly refuting a scientific axiom, theory, finding or other concept is always possible. However, none yet has refuted the vast and accelerating body of knowledge, agreed on in the main by 98% of climate scientists, that demonstrates this fact: Human activities have caused most of the global warming in the last 150 or so years.
I wish WUWT would become a science-based website that refutes myths promoted by the anti-science global doubting community. Haven’t seen much progress yet. Still seeing cherry-picked science and pseudo-science and discredited science quoted as comprehensive, real, peer-reviewed science. Looking forward to seeing that disappear someday.
“The truth is out there.” And scientists are finding it. Not using opinion, common sense, myth-spreading, poor logic or shouting. They use science. Live with it. Scientists are trying to help you live better lives – so please stop obstructing it.
So who the blazes were Younger and Dryas, or what happened to the Older Dryas, or where on earth is Younger Dryas, or where was Younger Dryas published, or what did Younger and Dryas think about Lewis and Clark, and were Younger and Dryas present at Rorke’s Drift ?
Enquiring minds want to know about the Dryas Sisters.
Curt says:
June 13, 2012 at 7:56 am
DirkH says:
June 13, 2012 at 6:57 am
An asteroid that hits Syria and Pennsylvania at the same time? Hello?
***************************
Remember the series of impacts of comets into Jupiter about a decade ago? They were widely spaced around a much bigger planet.
********************************************************************************************************************
I’m by no means religious, but the Book of Enoch talks about seven blazing stars which fell to Earth, and myths from all over the world refer to bright new stars which fell as seven flaming mountains, of how the oceans rose up in vast waves and totally engulfed the land, and how summer was driven away with a cold darkness that lasted several years. The Aborigines even had a name for them: the Water Girls. In the Atlantis story by Plato, Solon mentions that Atlantis sunk 9,000 years before.
I’m not saying the Atlantis myth is true, but myths do have a grain of truth to them. And they’re all so similar the world over. Maybe this is what they’re remembering? And event like that would definitely be remembered.
Stephen.
Thanks for the comments; this is what I like about WUWT, I learn a lot of things that I did not know. I did not know about the incredibly low temperatures need to freeze a mammoth, but it does make sense.. Likewise, I always thought that mammoths were “woolly” to protect them from the cold, Thanks again!
The Book of Enoch equated stars with angels and planets with archangels.
How do you get agriculture from a catastrophe?
Mammoths survived on Wrangel island till 4kya, at 71N latitude. That was probably when humans arrived.
Instantly frozen mammoth carcasses is a creationist myth.
Frozen decayed carcasses have been dated to various ages. I’m not aware of any dating to 12900BP. –AGF
How often do such impacts occur? Although, past patterns do not mean future patterns will be the same (consider the weather). However, as large impacts have happened before they can happen again. We should be looking for the next one.
Tim Mantyla says:
June 13, 2012 at 12:10 pm
“John, as scientists involved in climate change research keep pointing out to lay persons (and global warming doubters), climate is not weather. ”
“Mr. Causey’s statement is an example of the kind of thinking – supposition of causation from scant and/or irrelevant evidence – that helps spread myths about climate change, because it is not science-based.”
You take light-hearted banter that 98% of posters here recognise as exactly that, and make sweeping generalisations about those such as myself who are “helping to spread myths about climate change.”
You then write: “I wish WUWT would become a science-based website that refutes myths promoted by the anti-science global doubting community. Haven’t seen much progress yet.”
Folks here at WUWT are by and large, a fairly amicable bunch, and a lot goes on in the way of general chit-chat and good natured humour on the subject of the thread. Of course, there are those who come in here and criticize this and that, make demands on what people should or shouldn’t say, and go out of their way to look for reasons to belittle others.
So, my friend, since you seek to impugn my name, please enlighten us here, and tell the good folks at WUWT what “climate change myths” – apart from my joke about the new ice age – I am guilty of spreading. i don’t what to hear any more of the substance-free arm waving you’ve already made, but actual quotes of what I have said and why they are myths.
Thank you.
VC
I read Napier paper on the Taurid Complex recommended by swamp merchant. What I found most refreshing was the author clearly limiting the claim being made:
“The object of this paper is not to claim that such an encounter took place at 12,900 BP – that is a matter for Earthscientists – but to show that a convincing astronomical scenario can be constructed which seems to give a satisfactory match to the major geophysical features of the YoungerDryas Boundary data.”
Its a good read.
Nyeshet says:
What is most interesting to me about this article is that it gives evidence that the impact was in fact multiple impacts. So just how many were involved? So far there is evidence for at least three (North America, Germany, and Syria), but there may possibly have been a dozen or more of various severity.
Probably not a bad idea to look for any tsunami evidence in the Atlantic.
Shoemaker–Levy 9 had 21 major fragments. So it’s perfectly possible to get multiple planetary impacts from a single comet.
Very Interesting, so the recent ice age rhythm is continued and the lone anomaly is explained?
So there is no reason to not expect the ice age is in fact coming soon. In geologic time of course.
Be interest in what the computer models say about that.
Here’s a link if you are interested in an “alternative” view of what happened to the mammoths:
http://www.grahamkendall.net/Unsorted_files-2/A312-Frozen_Mammoths.txt
Be careful using this as an authority. I have been severely scolded for simply wondering about some of the things this paper brings up.
One thing I’ve wondered is if the same comet of dry ice (or other frozen gas) could both cause extreme heat and extreme cold. The heat would be caused by friction as it entered the atmosphere, and by clobbering the earth. However could a pulverized mass of post-impact dry ice produce a dust-storm of super-cold powder, capable of flash freezing?
Another thing this paper mentions is wet muck and dry laoss across the north that contains particles which are not worn and smoothes, as they would be by wind, but rather have a microscopic jaggedness indicative of quick creation and deposition. Also they are not stratified, as they would be if laid down over time, but represent large amounts of stuff all laid down at once. Any geologist care to comment?
Lastly, the paper notes large deposits of bones from big animals, located in high places, with the bones showing stress fractures from above, as if the beasts had struggled upwards against the forses of some unimaginable flood of raining crud, muck and so forth. Small animal bones are not noted, so apparently the little critters didn’t even make it up the hills?
Interesting stuff, but is it science, or science fiction?
Thanks, @Patrick Guinness! Folks, forget about the frozen mammoths, and put aside the myths for now. Just read the Napier paper, and the Cosmic Tusk: http://www.cosmictusk.com
@Tim Mantyla 12:10 PM
Why doesn’t WUWT quit obstructing proper science?
I can’t answer for everybody here, but I can certainly tell you that climate science modelling appears to violate norms of computer science practice in most fields. Models can be constructed any way you like, the best you know how, but they are not done yet. Then they have to pass tests, lots of tests. If they are still in development, they have to pass the tests over and over. The tests and their results have to be graded and kept. I can’t really imagine a modeller or IT professional from any field that could skip testing and still expect anybody to believe him. Clever people are all too prone to skip that discipline, and their work often suffers for it. So what we keep asking here is “Where are the tests?” How do you know that these models are correct, not just clever or well-informed? Otherwise they are not much more than sophisticated pictures somebody drew, using a computer. Sorry, but that’s my professional opinion, from a whole lot more years and experience than most of these guys have spent.