As I wrote here, there has recently been a new theory proposed to account for the onset of the Younger Dryas, a 1,500 year long period of extreme cold that took place between about 13,000 and 11,500 years ago. The new theory suggests that an "impact event" occurred somewhere near the Great Lakes at the beginning of the Younger Dryas:Iridium peaks, and spikes of ammonium and nitrate which could have been produced by extensive burning of biomass, are also found in the Greenland ice cores. The authors therefore propose that the black horizon is the result of massive forest fires raging across the whole North American continent, triggered by the fiery impact of a meteorite or comet - or possibly a low altitude explosion like the Tunguska event. Enough soot from the fires, and dust from the impact, would have been thrown into the atmosphere to significantly cool the climate, causing enough environmental stress to wipe out both the Clovis people and the mammoths.
Well, now the same team of scientists behind this theory have found further evidence for arctic impacts:
Startling evidence has been found which shows mammoth and other great beasts from the last ice age were blasted with material that came from space.
Eight tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having being peppered with meteorite fragments.
Basically, and as the picture above shows, it looks like the poor animals took something like a shot-gun blast to the upper surface (but NOT the lower surface) of the tusks.
Of course the dates--35,000 vs. 13,000 years ago--don't really match up, which leads geoscience consultant Allen West to speculate that
Maybe, these were tusks from dead animals that were just exposed on the surface, so when this thing blew up in the atmosphere, it would have peppered them. The date could really be anywhere from 13,000 to 35-40,000 years ago.
Plus an excellent post by Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo describing how cryptozoologists got to certain aspects of this theory years ago.
20 comments:
And, what is NOT said, is how the climate warmed up from that extreme cold event 11,500 years ago.
Huh?
I think that's already understood, isn't it?
Ti-guy,
Yes it is, he/she is just catching on.
Don't ridicule, encourage his thought processes whatever level they are at.
This person may have just looked outside and realized their are no mammoths to be seen.
Did you know that before that cold spell, the Great Lakes area was tropical? The Southampton Bruce Museum has coral from the Bruce.
So was Antarctica when it wasn't located where it is now. Past continent movements and previous climate patterns have no bearing whatsover on our current "normal" climate and position on the planet. Things changed over millions of years normally, but not over a hundred years. Nothing can adapt at this rate. This is the entire problem with climate change/global warming. The speed of change not necessarily the change. Natural change good, Anthropogenic change very bad.
Regardless, it sounds like we have a proven 'cooling' method to combat global warming - increased particulate matter into the atmosphere. What could be easier than having China run all those coal-powered plants without scrubbers?
So, how fast did the cold event happen, and how fast did the warming up occur?
It's funny watching ti-guy and Jay play at science-talk.
anany-turd,
It doesn't matter because its always way over your comprehension, why waste time? You can only understand a headline or sound bite. You have no interest in actually reading up on this stuff. I am not about to give you an education you were too dumb to get yourself. 8 years in university vs a possibly high school dropout. Your a lost cause, go back to plumbing.
The time spans are irrelevant because it nearly wiped humans out when it did occur. What do you think will happen with over 6 billion people here? Only near the tropics would people survive.
Thats too much for your pea brain?
Oh by the way, the planet CAN deal with climate change, when it gets too hot the earth will "restart" causing rapid cooling and an ice age. Its like rebooting.
One good thing is shitbags like you will be gone.
thank goodness there were no Great Lakes there then, just big piles of receding continental glaciers.
I see the Fort McMurray meth brigade has descended on this blog once again.
Syphilis is truly be out of control in the Oil Patch. It is to weep.
Anon 2:54,
What happened was the outflow of cold fresh water into the Atlantic from Lake Agassiz ended, and the warm currents flowing North were allowed to resume their flow.
Lizt,
that must have been way, way before. Millions of years. Not really relevant to what we're discussing.
"that must have been way, way before. Millions of years."
Huh? But the earth is only 6000 years old, BCL. I think Singer's got a paper out proving it.
Just what training does an environmental biologist have anyway?
Um, 13,000 years ago the continents were basically where they are today.
Um, and 13,000 years ago the Great Lakes weren't tropical.
So what is the critical mixture of massive amounts of CO2 from forest fires and particulate matter like smoke and dust, which tips the climate into an ice age? Can the 'global climate scientists' answer that question?
jay, I'm sure you did spen 8 years in university, and got your BA. Your grammar and spelling have betrayed you.
And yet, you can't present any facts to counter a simple 'high school dropout'. Tell us, what fields of science did you study in your eight years of university?
And yet, you can't present any facts to counter a simple 'high school dropout'.
There's a shocker...
"Simple" is right.
If the tusks were "peppered" post mortem it isn't likely that only the tops of the tusks would be affected. Unless there is some reason that dead Mammoth's tusks stay upright for thousands of years.
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