About 13,000 years ago, woolly mammoths roamed the North American continent and the first known human society in that region, known as the Clovis civilization, lived there as well. But geologic and archeological evidence shows they both suddenly disappeared, and scientists have long debated the mystery of the mass extinction of both animals and humans about 12,900 years ago. At that time, climatic history suggests the Ice Age should have been drawing to a close, but instead rapid climate change initiated an additional 1,300 years of glacial conditions. But scientists couldn’t agree on the cause of the sudden change in climate. However, about two years ago geophysicist Allen West proposed that an asteroid or comet exploded just above the earth’s surface at that time over modern-day Canada, sparking a massive shock wave and heat-generating event that set large parts of the northern hemisphere ablaze, setting the stage for the extinctions. Another scientist set out to prove West wrong, but ended up finding evidence to support the exploding asteroid/comet theory.
Ken Tankersley, Anthropology professor at the University of Cincinnati studied sites in Ohio and Indiana that offers the strongest support yet for the exploding comet/asteroid theory. Samples of diamonds, gold and silver found in the region have been conclusively sourced through X-ray diffractometry to have come from the diamond fields region of Canada.
Tankersley and West both believe the best scenario to explain the presence of these materials this far south is the kind of cataclysmic explosive event described by West’s theory. “We believe this is the strongest evidence yet indicating a comet impact in that time period,” says Tankersley.
Previously, geologists believed the deposits of the gems and precious metals were brought south from the Great Lakes region by glaciers. But they are found at a soil depth consistent with the time frame of the comet/asteroid event.
“My smoking gun to disprove (West) was going to be the gold, silver and diamonds,” Tankersley says. “But what I didn’t know at that point was a conclusion he had reached that he had not yet made public – that the likely point of impact for the comet wasn’t just anywhere over Canada, but located over Canada’s diamond-bearing fields. Instead of becoming the basis for rejecting his hypothesis, these items became the very best evidence to support it.”
Additional work is being done at the sites looking for iridium, micro-meteorites and nano-diamonds that bear the markers of the diamond-field region, which also should have been blasted by the impact into this region.
As Tankersley, West and additional scientists compile more data, they’ll be looking for more clues to help explain the history of our planet and its climate.
“The kind of evidence we are finding does suggest that climate change at the end of the last Ice Age was the result of a catastrophic event,” Tankersley says. “The ultimate importance of this kind of work is showing that we can’t control everything,” he says. “Our planet has been hit by asteroids many times throughout its history, and when that happens, it does produce climate change.”
Original Source: Science Daily
ANY LARGE OBJECTS WITH A HEADING TOWARDS EARTH OR OUR UNIVERSE HAS AT LEAST A KILLER AFTER IT, FROM EACH PLANET BUILT AND LAUNCHED AT LEAST 70 YEARS PRIOR TO COLLISION. THIS OR THESE KILLERS ARE CALLED COMETS. THESE ARE BUILT SPECIFICALLY TO RAM ANY LARGE OBJECT INBOUND. THIS IS THEIR PRIMARY FUNCTION. THEIR LAUNCHED EARLY SO THEY CAN GAIN SPEEDS AND COLLECT DEBRI ON THEIR COURSE TO RAM INTO THEIR TARGET AND THEIRS A POSSIBIBLY MORE FROM OTHER PLANETS BUILT AND LAUNCHED FOR THE SAME PURPOSE. MICHAEL J. SCHMITZ http://www.inventube.com/ooojay/
Interesting source for the first image!
Concerning the possibility that imbibing just a bit too much of the crayture accounts for Michael Schmitz’s interesting post, above, I lean more toward the ‘shroom or LSD theory of same. Moral: Friends . . . don’t let friends write intoxicated. 😉
Someone’s a bit more than just a little inebriated.
Also, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
Actually, there have been several finds in the Western hemisphere that predate the Clovis culture. Check it out.
I wonder how long the seismic reverberations of such an impact could be measured accurately? Like the ripples in a pond those energy waves will diminish with time but presumably some indication might remain.
Some cultures may have predated Clovis but the interesting thing being discovered by these researchers is there is a 400-500 year gap after Clovis with no signs of human activity.
Pretty interesting. The precious stones/metals could have been brought to Indiana/Ohio by the Clovis peoples. Trade was widespread even in those days.
When we planted trees down south, we would find different types of arrowheads in areas where that particular stone was not native to the area. Lots of tree planting inspectors were very good amateur archeologists and would offer their insights.
It made working with the Earth very intruiging.
Another question… how much reforrestation had taken place as the ice age retreated? If the woods caught fire and produced enough atmospheric dimming to extend the ice age, there should be evidence of carbon and possibly fossilized partically burned trees in wide areas across Canada and the USA.
Not all strange disappearences and changes are attributable to coment/asteroids.
Is this another tugunska or was there an impact we can actually see?
Very good threory, Makes alot of sense to what happened.
The theory is remarkable except for:
1. How big was the comet / asteroid? It ought to be bigger than Tunguska to pick-up debris from Canada and throw it over Ohio. It ought to be smaller than chicxulub not to leave a crater.
2. Why would the explosion pick-up only precious metals and diamond and no other geologic material? If seriously scanned such evidence may also be found.
3. Is there a calculation of explosive energy needed to do the above? It has to be just right level of energy to do this. Too much would leave a big crater, too small will not pick-up debris and deposit over 2000 miles away.
4. If it is as recent as 12,900 years, there would be significant tell-tale signs over Canada, has it been found? If not crater significant charring should be seen.
5. Does the dead Mammoth bodies discovered in the recent past show such signs?
6. Is there any evidence in arctic or antarctic ice? It is too recent to be missed.
If one can answer above, the theory would be more credible.
Unfortunately, the blog and website referenced, do not give many details of the research. The precious metals, diamonds and rare-earths are not rocks traded by paleo-indians, they are micro-spheroids and tiny particles which exist in much higher abundance than background normal. In many cases they are part of a thin layer of charcoal and carbon rich biomass (evidence of burning) which lies in a strata immediately on top of the Clovis strata. This is often called the “black mat” and exists at many of the sites examined. The anomalous spike in rare-earths exist in nearly all the sites. Those interested, should find the original research publications as the popular media can not report all the details.
At the end of the ice age, Northern Canada should have been covered in ice. So what burned?
Amazing comments. Ignorance and stupidity abound.
Re KK above. True. Occam’s Razor applies. Bang. Done. Neat, simple, complete.
so interesting. i wonder which will win – the technology to divert the next killer comet, or the comet?
Essel:
As far as your point about the size of the asteroid, I can point out that it is explainable that there was no crater. The suspected impact area is basically on the Canadian Sheild, which is essentially a gigantic metal plate. It is conceivable that a massive object would not create a crater there, as it would on any part of the world. There would still have to be evidence there though. Looking in the Midwest of the US won’t give us all the answers.
If glacial deposition is capable of explaining the diamonds and metals, why invoke a comet?
In the northern Quebec,we have two asteroid lakes originate from this period .I agree also with this theory because that’sa explain a lot of things.Actually ,we don’t need of an asteroid for stated the sixth massive extinction…It’s begin…and it’s writing somewhere that we will …disappear massively!
I have seen so much dissent between the “commet/meteor explosion” theory and the “volcano” theory that my simple little mind has taken the two and glued them together. Would not the shockwave from the “comet/meteor” explosion be enough to set off some large, simmering volcano(s) on this still volcano active globe? Archeology has discovered a thin, yet worldwide layer of volcanic dust that also coordinates with one of the largest extinction periods ever. from what I can read and watch, this layer is worldwide and “chemistry” similar, ie: minerals point to one source. So tell me, please, could these two not go hand-in-hand, one shockwave setting off the other eruption, and the effects of both being the major cause?
A good theory, but hardly “done, complete”, these are merely indications. I find it hard to believe that any such event could create 1300 years of cooling, though perhaps with a subsequent volcanic episode, this could explain the prolongation. The volcanic evidence has to be at the same time and strata level, however. I’d like to hear more about this Canadian “metal sheild” that would not produce any crater! Regarding mammoth fossils, it has been noted that many archaic bird fossils are found in shapes of writhing agony – backs arched, beaks agape – that is, they did nto die peacefully, but fell out of the sky in flames. But again, it has to be the right strata to be simultaneous with cataclysms.
It is a fascinating and tragic new chapter of human history that the brilliant Clovis people may have been wiped out by a single natural disaster. But not before they left their great toolmaking breakthrough to human intellectual history. Isn’t it the clovis point which marks the first and most profound threshold between ape and human? I also find it interesting that these meteor “visitations” always seem to happen at the right moment in history to shut down something which threatens to send life down too “non-diverse” and tangential a path, and spur a new general burst of growth. Perhaps Clovis was so revolutionary an awakening, that it had unbearable social repercussions for these barely human peoples, though any evidence of this is probably unrecoverable. I believe there is strong archeological evidence that the clovis discovery had spread to other parts of the world by the time the originators were (theoretically) decimated.
There are many theories about the end of the glaciation, one of them by Charles Hapgood who was supported all heartedly by Einstein, it is called the “earth crust displacement”, where all the tectonic plate would move at the same time. At the time when the tectonic plate theory was barely admitted by general science, Hapgood suggested that the plates, situated on top of magma would be for reasons of weight at poles would be sliding simultaneously on the entire planet. This would explain why the North pole was in Labrador at one time and is no longer. Of course a asteroid could have created the displacement also. The results would have been automatically a massive eruption all over the entire world.
just my 2 cents.
I seem to remember a recent science article published regarding the find of mammoth bones showing evidence of preferential penetrations of tiny particles on one side of their bones, as if they were blasted by a shower of a disintegrating body (comet-asteroid?). But I strongly agree with Kevin M that these fossils must be in the right strata. Also, I wonder if any Kimberlite pipes or formations are located near the area in Canada where these diamonds are found? Just curious.