[FPSPACE] Comets and ice-age extinctions

[Peter Pesavento]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/cometkillediceagebeasts

 

Comet Killed Ice Age Beasts

Jeanna
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/cometkil
lediceagebeasts/32772255/SIG=11nsdukp6;_ylt=ApMZ7vapu.ZzHKm0jYWYiTqzvtEF;_yl
u=X3oDMTFoaHFuMjVxBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNqZWFubm
FicnluZXI-/*http:/www.space.com/php/contactus/feedback.php?r=jbr>  Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/cometkil
lediceagebeasts/32772255/SIG=10sog4vj6;_ylt=AuUX8degaN6QKo6bgoTJFB.zvtEF;_yl
u=X3oDMTFodTBybTBrBHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNsaXZlc2
NpZW5jZWM-/*http:/www.livescience.com>  jeanna
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/cometkil
lediceagebeasts/32772255/sig=11nsdukp6/*http:/www.space.com/php/contactus/fe
edback.php?r=jbr>  Bryner
senior Writer
livescience.com
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/cometkil
lediceagebeasts/32772255/sig=10sog4vj6/*http:/www.livescience.com>  Mon Jul
20, 5:11 pm ET

 

Space rocks that slammed into the glaciers of eastern Canada some 12,900
years ago likely helped wiped out mega-animals like woolly mammoths and
possibly the continent's first human inhabitants called the Clovis people,
according to a new study that adds to evidence that a trio of factors were
involved. 

The new evidence comes from recently discovered nano-sized diamonds, which
researchers say are the strongest clues to date for an argument that could
explain the region's die-off during the late Pleistocene epoch. 

Scientists have long debated what caused this catastrophic extinction event,
sending more than three-fourths of North America's large
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/comet
killediceagebeasts/32772255/SIG=11b81c87k;_ylt=AkZLhU4Vp.JyoTGehMqof3qzvtEF;
_ylu=X3oDMTFoMTVwc2JsBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNpY2V
hZ2VhbmltYWw-/*http:/www.livescience.com/topic/mammoths> Ice Age animals and
the Clovis people to their graves. (The Clovis people were a Stone Age group
that had only recently immigrated to the continent.) 

To date, two major explanations - human overhunting and climate change -
were insufficient by themselves to account for the mega die-off. But add in
the comet impact, and all three factors may have combined to create a deadly
"perfect storm," said study researcher Allen West of GeoScience Consulting
in Arizona. 

"There's no way to tell what percentage each one of those three things
played in the demise of the megafauna. But almost certainly all three were
involved - impact, climate change and humans," West said. 

The comet culprit isn't a new idea. Scientists have reported finding
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/comet
killediceagebeasts/32772255/SIG=124rp8lvp;_ylt=AmAeDOLzZkMrp_MbgSHaPDuzvtEF;
_ylu=X3oDMTFocWppNnQxBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNjb21
ldGV2aWRlbmM-/*http:/www.livescience.com/strangenews/080707-canada-diamonds.
html> comet evidence such as
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/comet
killediceagebeasts/32772255/SIG=11ujkrbm3;_ylt=AtPRTsEB1b7FNcJKTRJBqfKzvtEF;
_ylu=X3oDMTFoNzlrOWxnBHBvcwM4BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNuYW5
vZGlhbW9uZHM-/*http:/www.livescience.com/animals/070521_comet_climate.html>
nanodiamonds, glass-like carbon and the rare Earth element iridium. But this
is the first time scientists have reported hexagonal diamonds. These
so-called lonsdaleite nanodiamonds have been found only in meteorites or
impact craters. 

"[Lonsdaleite] forms under very high temperatures and pressures consistent
with a cosmic impact," said study team member Douglas Kennett, an
archaeologist at the University of Oregon. "These diamonds have only been
found thus far in meteorites and impact craters on Earth and appear to be
the strongest indicator yet of a significant cosmic impact [during Clovis]."


Diamond discovery 

The team discovered the tiny diamonds below 13 feet (4 meters) of sediment
in Arlington Canyon, which is located on the island of Santa Rosa. This
island was once connected to three other Northern Channel Islands off the
Southern California coast in a landmass known as Santarosae. 

The researchers have also found the hexagonal diamonds at other sites across
North America and Europe. 

>From the diamond evidence and other material, here's how the researchers
think the demise went down: One or a few comet-like objects up to about a
mile (2 km) across smacked into Canada. The comets must have hit at an
oblique angle, the researchers say, blowing away a good portion of ice -
explaining why scientists have yet to find a crater. 

The impact would have triggered a wave of massive wildfires, something
supported by soot found in the area with the nanodiamonds at the Santa Rosa
site and others across North America. Such fires could have incinerated
nearby megafauna and humans. 

The comet's effects could also be responsible for the extinction of the
pygmy mammoth from the Northern Channel Islands, the researchers say. 

Mega chill 

The longer-term effects would have killed most of the lingering survivors. 

"An explosion like this of a comet injects a lot of water vapor (comets are
made of water ice) so it basically would've put clouds over most of the
Northern Hemisphere," West said. "That's going to make things get very cool
very quickly." 

Plus, the wildfires would have loaded the atmosphere with sun-blocking dust,
soot, water vapor and nitric oxides. The result would be abrupt climate
cooling. 

In fact, West and his colleagues think the cosmic impact also caused a
cooling period known as the Younger Dryas. 

"It would be a little like if you're living in Miami and suddenly, within
less than a year, the climate turns the equivalent of Montreal, Canada. It
means palm trees couldn't grow," West told LiveScience. 

Plants adapted to the warmer climes would have died, leaving little food for
the roaming giants, West said. 

West and his colleagues are still trying to figure out exactly how the
hexagonal nanodiamonds and other diamond varieties found at this
12,900-year-old layer of sediment formed. The researchers suggest the
high-pressure, high-temperature impact converted graphite on Earth into the
hexagonal diamonds. In addition, some of the carbon-dioxide ice within the
comet itself could have transformed into such rare nanodiamonds upon impact.


The National Science Foundation provided primary funding for the research,
which is detailed this week in the journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. 

 

 

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