North America's woolly mammoth, giant ground sloths and sabre-tooth tigers are thought to have been wiped out by a devastating comet 12,900 years ago
- Researchers looked for presence of nanodiamonds in Oklahoma
- Nanodiamond is one type of material that could result from a collision
- 49 sediment samples representing different time periods were studied
- Team found nanodiamonds below and just above Younger Dryas deposits
- Younger Dryas, or the 'Big Freeze', saw a return to glacial conditions in higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere 12,900 - 11,500 years ago
This is according to a controversial study by Californian Professor James Kennet which suggests that an ancient cosmic impact triggered a vicious cold snap.
Now a research team from University of California, Santa Barbara, claims to have further evidence to back up Professor Kennett's 2007 'Younger Dryas impact theory'.
The Younger Dryas, or the 'Big Freeze', saw a rapid return to glacial conditions in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere between 12,900 - 11,500 years ago.
Researchers claim that debris thrown into the atmosphere from an impact may have tipped the Earth into global cooling, wiping out megafauna along with native cultures such as the Clovis people.
Scientists from University of California, Santa Barbara, found nanodiamonds around rock sediment that formed during the Big Freeze 12.900 years ago. In these images nanodiamond textures in the sediment are shown using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope
The research team re-examined the distribution of nanodiamonds in Bull Creek's geological record to see if they could reproduce the original study's evidence.
'We were able to replicate some of their results and we did find nanodiamonds right at the Younger Dryas Boundary,' said Alexander Simms, an associate professor the University of California.
Researchers analysed 49 sediment samples representing different time periods and environmental changes.
The research team re-examined the distribution of nanodiamonds in Bull Creek's geological record to see if they could reproduce the original study's evidence
The excavation at Bull Creek shows the paleosol - ancient buried soil; the dark black layer in the side of the cliff -- that formed during the Younger Dryas
The researchers believe that the presence of nanodiamonds was not caused by environmental changes, soil formation, cultural activities, or the amount of time in which the landscape was stable.
They believe whatever process produced the elevated concentrations of nanodiamonds at the onset of the Younger Dryas sediments may have also been active in recent millennia in Bull Creek.
A 'recent' meteorite impact did occur near Bull Creek but scientists aren't sure exactly when.
However, they claim this provide compelling evidence that the nanodiamonds were the result of a comet collision.
The Younger Dryas comet theory has been criticised for a number of reasons, including suggestions that the human population didn't decline at the time,
Some scientists believe that the Big Freeze was a result of the North American ice sheet breaking apart and flooding the Atlantic Ocean with freshwater.
This, they claim, prevented currents taking warmer water north, which caused a colder climate.
ICE CORE DATA SUGGESTS A COMET WIPED OUT THE CLOVIS PEOPLE
A separate study last year found further evidence that a cosmic impact 12,900 years ago could have led to the demise of the 'Clovis' people of North America.
A layer of platinum from an ice core taken in Greenland was dated back to the time of a known abrupt climate transition, known as the 'Big Freeze' that led to their demise.According to researchers at Harvard University, this provides evidence that a comet tipped the world into its colder phase, making dozens of species extinct.
Researcher Michail Petaev and Harvard colleagues, writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found a 100-fold increase in platinum concentration in ice that is around 12,890 years old.
This is the reason why the American indigenous populous was in an inferior position as far as civilized advancement of metallurgy and other societal skills. In my opinion it is also the reason for the entire reasoning behind Yellowstone.
Yellowstone is an environment that is reasoned as a volcanic formation of interesting circumstance. The reason for that has often been a super-volcano that happened in the past. I have never believed that. I have always believed that a minor impact from an object in space fractured a major continental plate, and left what remains now. Included in that impact was the disintegration and destruction of what had existed before, and I am speculating on a continental scale. What we the genocidal victors (known as Americans) conquered was a poor and degraded representation of what had existed before this event. There are many "mounds" and other artifacts that have been investigated. The main thing I am claiming is that if the "indians" came over on an ice bridge, then why were the South American tribes incredibly superior in terms of technology over the North American tribes, particularly in consideration of the resources that exist in North America. Imagine the time it would take for tribal units to populate as far south as south America. Now I am in no way saying that South America wasn't populated from different means, such as a different circumstance of Columbus, that is another discussion. But what I am saying is that the relatively poor development of the tribes (in a techno-development means) across the board (though in tune with nature), It's as if the North American tribes were wiped out and then repopulated the area based on what was left there. Another proof is that there were once camels, pachyderms, and horses, among other mammals thriving in the area. It seems that the whole ecosystem of North America was crushed, and what remained was the life that could flourish. By the time white Europeans arrived it was a thriving order of nature. We all know what happened from there....