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Saturday, October 5, 2019

More Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe 10,000 B.C.

I've written before of the evidence suggesting that some cosmic catastrophe, be it a meteor impact or major solar eruption, touched off the Younger Dryas event approximately 12,000 years ago. However, there has been a lot of resistance to the idea that the Younger Dryas was caused by an impact. Much of the evidence has been gathered from sites in North America showing nanodiamonds and the laying down of layers of ash, but scientist differ on how to interpret the data.

    Now comes a paper from researchers in South Africa that have found additional evidence of an impactor 12,800 years ago in South Africa. In "New research supports hypothesis that asteroid contributed to mass extinction," it relates:
       The team, led by Professor Francis Thackeray of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, discovered evidence of a remarkable “platinum spike” at a site called Wonderkrater in the Limpopo Province, north of Pretoria in South Africa. Working with researcher Philip Pieterse from the University of Johannesburg and Professor Louis Scott of the University of the Free State, Thackeray discovered this evidence from a core drilled in a peat deposit, notably in a sample about 12 800 years old. This research was published in Palaeontologia Africana.

      Noting that meteorites are rich in platinum, Thackeray said “Our finding at least partially supports the highly controversial Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH). We seriously need to explore the view that an asteroid impact somewhere on earth may have caused climate change on a global scale, and contributed to some extent to the process of extinctions of large animals at the end of the Pleistocene, after the last ice age.”  
The article continues:
      Many mammals became extinct in North America, South America and Europe at the time of the Younger Dryas. In South Africa a few extraordinary large animal species became extinct, not necessarily at exactly 12 800 years ago, but close to that period. These megafauna include a giant African buffalo, a large zebra, and a very big wildebeest. 

      Human populations may also have been indirectly affected at the time in question. In North America there is a dramatic termination of the stone tool technology of Clovis people. Remarkably, archaeologists in South Africa have detected an almost simultaneous termination of the Robberg stone artefact industry associated with people in some parts of the country, including the area around Boomplaas near the Cango Caves in the southern Cape, close to the town of Oudshoorn.

      “Without necessarily arguing for a single causal factor on a global scale, we cautiously hint at the possibility that these technological changes, in North America and on the African subcontinent at about the same time, might have been associated indirectly with an asteroid impact with major global consequences,” says Thackeray. “We cannot be certain, but a cosmic impact could have affected humans as a result of local changes in environment and the availability of food resources, associated with sudden climate change.” 
Interesting stuff!

5 comments:

  1. I love that period in history. It's been amazing to watch over the last 20 years that the meteor/comet theory went from crackpot to . . . "oh my gosh, it probably happened." Good times. To me, the instructive part is watching people react to information that doesn't agree with common theories - cognitive dissonance is funny to watch.

    It's even funnier to induce.

    Man, I love the Truth.

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    1. The Solutrean Migration Theory might some day also be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. That would be especially amusing to watch the mostly Leftist archaeological community...who are also burdened by political correctness and cultural sensitivity...having to explain to Native Americans that they weren't necessarily the first or only peoples to have arrived here. The Clovis Comet Theory is also great because many archaeologists today have become environmental crusaders who like to hold up Late Ice Age megafauna extinctions as a dire warning to us regarding the horrors of global warming. That the extinctions may have been due to a random and unavoidable asteroid strike does not support academia's Leftist narrative.

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    2. I don't know why scientists think that the Solutrean Migration Theory would be so physically impossible. Earlier this year, scientists tracked an Arctic fox released in Norway that traveled 2,700 miles over a period of 4 months and ended up in Northern Canada. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/arctic-fox-treks-over-2-700-miles-across-arctic-four-n1025576). I'm sure if a fox could do it, so could people.

      It is a fascinating time to be alive. We are seeing paradigm shifts occurring in several different scientific fields that are upending long held beliefs. I, for one, enjoy seeing the rise of the "plasma universe."

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    3. Interesting story about the Fox. I hadn't heard that one. BTW there was also an incident back in the 1960's where two Inuit seal hunters were out on the ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. It was Springtime and the ice sheet they were on broke off early...leaving them drifting in the ocean current. Long story short, they were adrift for two or three months, surviving on the minimal equipment they had with them. They were rescued by the Icelandic Coast Guard in the area between Greenland and Iceland.

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    4. Hadn't heard about the seal hunters. I suspect that there has been a lot more accidental migration than anyone has guessed at.

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