Comet explosion 13,000 years ago- 'Hell on Earth'

by René | May 20, 2007 at 08:38 pm
2135 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments

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Diamonds Reveal the Tail

A comet exploded over the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago, creating a
hail of fireballs that set fire to most of the northern hemisphere, explaining three of the highest-debated controversies of recent decades.

  • the sudden disappearance of the first Stone Age people of America,
  • the
    disappearance of mammoths throughout much of Europe and America
  • the
    sudden cooling of the planet, an event known as the Younger-Dryas
    period.

"The result would have been hell on Earth.", said Arizona geophysicist Allen West.

Scientists meeting next week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Acapulco, Mexico will present their findings:

Wednesday, 23 May

Ancient Diamond Debris Suggests Deadly, Climate-changing Blast

Investigations of a buried layer at sites from California to Belgium reveal materials that include metallic microspherules, carbon spherules, nanodiamonds, fullerenes, charcoal, and soot. The layer's composition may indicate that a massive body, possibly a comet, exploded in the atmosphere over the Laurentide Ice Sheet 12,900 years ago. The timing coincides with a great die-off of mammoths and other North American megafauna and the onset of a period of cooling in Northern Europe and elswhere known as the Younger Dryas Event. Speakers will discuss numerous lines of evidence contributing to the impact hypothesis. The nature and frequency of this new kind of impact event could have major implications for our understanding of extinctions and climate change.

Participants

  • * Richard Firestone : Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA;
  • * James Kennett: Professor, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA;
  • * Allen West: Geoscience Consulting, Dewey, Arizona, USA;
  • * Luann Becker: Associate Researcher, Institute for Crustal Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

According to the reports, the scientists' theorize that the comet fractured just before impact, setting off many explosions equal to atomic blasts which set much of the Northern Hemisphere on fire, and plunged into the ice sheets that covered most of higher latitudes, causing wide-spread melting that disrupted the Atlantic ocean currents and caused a 1,000 year cold spell in Europe and Asia.

Ancient civilizations would have suffered serious setbacks.

 

recommend This comment thread is now closed
ScienceDave
ScienceDave
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 20:30 on May 20th, 2007

Very interesting!  From my understanding, most hypotheses explaining the Younger Dryas cooling event suggest changes in ocean circulation were responsible.  Good stuff.

1
JusDennis

Take a look at this

http://theholocenecomet.spaces.live.com/

0
René

Amazing what satellite photos can uncover. also youtube of the conference on this.

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