New evidence suggests meteorite smashed into Earth 12,800 years ago

spaminator

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New evidence suggests meteorite smashed into Earth 12,800 years ago
Postmedia News
Published:
October 9, 2019
Updated:
October 9, 2019 1:28 PM EDT
(Getty Images file photo)
Scientists in South Africa have discovered new evidence to support a hypothesis that the Earth was struck by a meteorite or asteroid 12,800 years ago, causing global climate change and extinction.
A group of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, took a soil sample from an archaeological site called Wonderkrater outside a small town north of Pretoria and found a spike in platinum levels, which they say supports the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.
The hypothesis assumes that a disintegrating asteroid, which is high in platinum, barrelled down on Earth, causing an ice age.
Several species, such as the giant African buffalo, a large zebra, and a big wildebeest in Africa, are believed to have been wiped out as a result off the Earth’s rapid cooling. The impact from the asteroid or comet sent dust into the air, which might have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s atmosphere.
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The scientists think human populations may have also have been indirectly affected, noting that the Clovis people stopped developing the use of stone tools in North America and the end of Robberg stone artifact industry in South Africa around the same time.
Sites with high platinum levels that date back to the same period have been found mostly in the northern hemisphere. The Wonderkrater dig is the first time such evidence has been found in Africa.
The research was published in Palaeontologia Africana on Oct. 2.

http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/28129
http://torontosun.com/technology/new-evidence-suggests-meteorite-smashed-into-earth-12800-years-ago
 

Ron in Regina

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New evidence suggests meteorite smashed into Earth 12,800 years ago
Postmedia News
Published:
October 9, 2019
Updated:
October 9, 2019 1:28 PM EDT

Scientists in South Africa have discovered new evidence to support a hypothesis that the Earth was struck by a meteorite or asteroid 12,800 years ago, causing global climate change and extinction.

A group of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, took a soil sample from an archaeological site called Wonderkrater outside a small town north of Pretoria and found a spike in platinum levels, which they say supports the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.

The hypothesis assumes that a disintegrating asteroid, which is high in platinum, barrelled down on Earth, causing an ice age.

Several species, such as the giant African buffalo, a large zebra, and a big wildebeest in Africa, are believed to have been wiped out as a result off the Earth’s rapid cooling. The impact from the asteroid or comet sent dust into the air, which might have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s atmosphere....The rest can be found in the OP.....
This was an interesting time with much of North America under massive glaciers and sea levels about 400 feet lower than they are today.

Here's a Podcast debate over this subject:

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis posits that fragments of a large (more than 4 kilometers in diameter), disintegrating asteroid or comet struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia about 12,800 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis




 

Curious Cdn

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One of the fragment craters....I believe you're looking at #22 on the map above? http://www.pnas.org/content/104/41/16016

The ejecta pattern suggests that it exploded somewhere around #22 up in the high atmosphere and bits dropped out of orbit downrange.

I wonder if that massive air burst in the heavens made it into our oral tradition and later religious writings? It's not THAT long ago.
 

Ron in Regina

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In my opinion that's entirely possible. It could have been like Shoemaker Levy 9 that impacted with Jupiter but broke into many pieces before hitting that planet. There are theories and evidence for other impacts on the Earth since then also that could also have made it into our oral tradition and later religious writings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burckle_Crater

Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_del_Cielo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henbury_Meteorites_Conservation_Reserve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitecourt_crater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaali_crater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamil_Crater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
 

Ron in Regina

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So, the crater is near Crete.
North Syria, maybe ...
I believe the current theory is that the object came in from the west south west and broke up in the atmosphere before impact first striking the glaciers that covered most of North America. Then other fragments impacted Greenland and Europe with many of them striking into the oceans. Impact number 22 fragment isn’t the beginning but the end point discovered so far... and I know it’s misleading looking at the map but most of the fragments haven’t been discovered as they are in the Atlantic ocean or the North Sea or under the ice of Greenland or just buried in time due to the strike taking place I was 13,000 years ago.
 

Ron in Regina

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The ejecta pattern suggests that it exploded somewhere around #22 up in the high atmosphere and bits dropped out of orbit downrange.

I wonder if that massive air burst in the heavens made it into our oral tradition and later religious writings? It's not THAT long ago.
I see where you're coming from, and a debris field (like with the Titanic) is usually a starting point outwards in a fan shape. If this broke apart in the upper atmosphere then that concept goes out the window though. There would be debris in the Pacific Ocean, then across the Americas, carrying on in a WNW direction with many pieces ending up in the oceans confusing the pattern you're envisioning.
 

Curious Cdn

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I see where you're coming from, and a debris field (like with the Titanic) is usually a starting point outwards in a fan shape. If this broke apart in the upper atmosphere then that concept goes out the window though. There would be debris in the Pacific Ocean, then across the Americas, carrying on in a WNW direction with many pieces ending up in the oceans confusing the pattern you're envisioning.
You'll still see a crater somewhere if it impacted the surface as a relatively whole object. You'd even find one on a sea bed. This just happened yesterday.

It must have been one hell of an airburst, if that's what happened. It would have been hundreds of megatons, like a whole bunch of Tsar Bonmbas going off at once, to throw stuff so far. Anyway, our Mesolithic ancestors survived it and it was right around then that we humans started to take off, so a reasonably sized asteroid or comet does not spell the end of everything.
 
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Ron in Regina

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You'll still see a crater somewhere if it impacted the surface as a relatively whole object. You'd even find one on a sea bed. This just happened yesterday.....

Theory is that many hit the glaciers covering much of N.A. that where 1-2 miles thick in places. Not sure how that plays in. The podcast LINK several posts up is interesting as Hell as a debate moderated by Joe Rogan. Miles deep of water (784 times more dense than air) or miles of ice and 12,800 years of time could affect what you'd expect to see for craters. They have one and maybe two actual craters in Greenland preserved under the ice instead of weathered by melting glaciers.

Picture back when this was suppose to have happened. North America under glaciers, the Sahara being Green, and the Bearing sea being a continent sized unglaciated landmass much larger than modern day Alaska (the sea level being 400ft lower than today), and Florida being twice the width that it is today. Look back 12,800 years Before present or so at the temp graph below:


Look at the Bearing Sea before this time. Look at Indonesia. Greenland is connected to Canada by a big landmass. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea would have been fresh water lakes. England & Ireland & Scotland are physically part of Europe. Iceland is HUGE. What would the Hawaiian Islands have looked like?


Check out on Vancouver Island...

 

Danbones

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The ejecta pattern suggests that it exploded somewhere around #22 up in the high atmosphere and bits dropped out of orbit downrange.
I wonder if that massive air burst in the heavens made it into our oral tradition and later religious writings? It's not THAT long ago.
TRY reading revelations. They describe it quite well there.
;)
Though I doubt you have the acumen to understand that, or I wouldn't have to explain it to you now, you would already know.
 

Cliffy

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TRY reading revelations. They describe it quite well there.
;)
Though I doubt you have the acumen to understand that, or I wouldn't have to explain it to you now, you would already know.
Revelations are the rantings of a person freaking out on ergot. If you understand it, well...
 

Curious Cdn

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TRY reading revelations. They describe it quite well there.
;)
Though I doubt you have the acumen to understand that, or I wouldn't have to explain it to you now, you would already know.
I like the Viking version better with "the Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse".
 

Walter

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That meteor caused climate change. Where's Greta, "How dare you, you mean old meteorite."