The YDIH seems to be a highly polarizing topic in which there are 2 competing theories for significant globalmcooling and megafaunal extinction (as well as the disappearance of the Clovis culture in N America) approx 12,800 years ago.
Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis : a disintegrating comet or asteroid apprpx 4 miles in diameter broke up in the armosphere over N America, Europe, W Asia leading to enormous temperatures and wildfires. Evidence for this has been found in many locations worldwide including prevalence of shocked quartz, platinum spherules etc
https://martinsweatman.blogspot.com/2022/10/wikipedias-bias-younger-dryas-impact.html?m=1
- Several groups have not been able to replicate the results, leading to papers which claim to comprehensively refute the hypothesis once and for all :
There is a Cometary Research Group (CRG), whose members are seen to be proponents of the hypothesis. Opponents try to portray them as opportunistic and unscientific
Prima facie, careful examination of evidence should lead us to the scientifically rigorous result. But since the publication of the original paper by Firestone et al in 2007 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, no less
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0706977104
Seems to be a genuine scientific controversy
Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis : a disintegrating comet or asteroid apprpx 4 miles in diameter broke up in the armosphere over N America, Europe, W Asia leading to enormous temperatures and wildfires. Evidence for this has been found in many locations worldwide including prevalence of shocked quartz, platinum spherules etc
https://martinsweatman.blogspot.com/2022/10/wikipedias-bias-younger-dryas-impact.html?m=1
There are several issues associated with the validation of the hypothesis :External Quote:The YDIH 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 around 12,850 years ago, coinciding with the beginning of the Younger Dryas cooling event. Multiple meteor air bursts and/or impacts are claimed to have produced the Younger Dryas (YD) boundary layer (YDB), depositing peak concentrations of platinum, high-temperature spherules, meltglass, and nanodiamonds, forming an isochronous datum at more than 50 sites across about 50 million km2 of Earth's surface. Some scientists have proposed that this event triggered extensive biomass burning, a brief impact winter and the Younger Dryas abrupt climate change, contributed to extinctions of late Pleistocene megafauna, and resulted in the end of the Clovis culture.[4][5]
- Several groups have not been able to replicate the results, leading to papers which claim to comprehensively refute the hypothesis once and for all :
In addition, individuals lije Graham Hancock have utilised this (prima facie serious scentific hypothesis) to make various extraordinary claims about ancient advanced civilizationsExternal Quote:
Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH)
- July 2023
- Earth-Science Reviews 247(4):104502
- July 2023
- 247(4):104502
There is a Cometary Research Group (CRG), whose members are seen to be proponents of the hypothesis. Opponents try to portray them as opportunistic and unscientific
Prima facie, careful examination of evidence should lead us to the scientifically rigorous result. But since the publication of the original paper by Firestone et al in 2007 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, no less
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0706977104
The list of proponents and opponents has continued to growExternal Quote:
Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling
R. B. Firestone rbfirestone@lbl.gov, A. West, J. P. Kennett, +22, and W. S. WolbachAuthors Info & Affiliations
October 9, 2007
104 (41) 16016-16021
Seems to be a genuine scientific controversy