There has long been plenty of evidence of the Younger Dryas Impact Event, but there has been a group of influential scientists dead set against admitting that it occurred. The "evidence" those resisting it bring up is so bad that it would ruin the career of researchers of lesser reputations. The Daily Mail reports today on additional evidence discovered in North America: "Evidence of 'Doomsday comet' that wiped out forgotten civilization 12,800 years ago found in US." The "civilization" referenced in the headline was no civilization, but the Clovis culture--a stone age hunter-gatherer culture found throughout North America prior to the Younger Dryas, but not after the impact event. The newly discovered evidence is shocked quartz:
Researchers analyzing sediment samples in California, Arizona and New Mexico discovered shocked quartz, tiny mineral grains deformed under extreme pressure, dating back to around 10,800 BC.
Shocked quartz forms when minerals are subjected to sudden, intense pressures such as those generated by a meteorite impact or large-scale atmospheric explosion.
The presence of this material at the sites indicates that an airburst or impact event likely devastated large portions of the continent, igniting wildfires, destabilizing the climate and wiping out many of the massive Ice Age animals that roamed the region.
The dating of the shocked quartz coincided with the rapid disappearance of the Clovis people, a technologically advanced hunter-gatherer culture that had dominated much of North America for centuries.
Archaeological evidence has shown that their distinctive stone tools vanish abruptly from the record shortly after this period.
This timing also marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas, a sudden and dramatic cooling event that lasted about 1,200 years.
Probably a coincidence. I'm sure it's unrelated ;)
ReplyDeleteThe naysayers constantly fall back on the lack of an impact crater; but by their standards, there is no proof of the Tunguska Event.
DeleteI remember hearing this on Art Bell back in 1999 or so. They nailed it.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to the theory primarily through a book entitled "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes" which was one of the first books to try and collect and correlate the evidence of the impact theory. A more recent book that catches up on the more recent evidence on both sides of the controversy is "Deadly Voyager".
DeleteClovis wasn't a "people" it was a distinctive technology. People talk about how rapidly Clovis spread across North America after nomadic bands allegedly came across the Land Bridge from NE Asia, but it may have been the technology itself that spread...leading to the question if people were already present here before Clovis. Some of the oldest sites in North America are in Delmarva Peninsula along the East Coast...which contrasts with the idea that the very first peoples entered through Alaska and traveled down the West Coast. Just thought I'd add that to the discussion!
ReplyDeleteYes, the Solutrean hypothesis. I've read that genetic research has ruled out that hypothesis, but I don't know the distribution of the tests that were performed and if they included remains from the East Coast. It is possible that the technology of one population was copied by another population.
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