raw evidence from South Africa is adding further credence to the idea that a large asteroid or comet struck Earth during the Pleistocene — an event that possibly triggered the extinction of many large fauna while also interrupt human populations at a global scale .
Along with placement in North and South America , Greenland , Western Europe , and the Middle East , we can now add southern Africa to the listing of places where scientist have uncovered evidence of a fateful event that happened 12,800 years ago .
Newresearchpublished this week in the science journal Palaeontologia Africana describe the presence of excessive atomic number 78 in sedimentary material extract from a site in South Africa dating back to this stop . meteorite are packed with atomic number 78 , and an impact with a sufficiently large , disintegrate physical object would ’ve broadcast platinum across the globe , grant to the research squad , moderate by Francis Thackeray of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa .
Artist’s depiction of an asteroid heading toward the inner Solar System.Image: (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
https://gizmodo.com/were-woolly-mammoths-and-saber-tooth-cats-wiped-out-by-5891053
This grounds of a 12,800 - twelvemonth - onetime platinum spike in Africa is the first to be obtain on the continent , and it ’s yet further grounds in reenforcement of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis . According to this theory , either a comet or asteroid struck Earth during the Pleistocene , trigger an impact winter that go out temperatures plump around the globe . The associated loss of plant life top to the extinction of many large animal species , along with possible hoo-ha to human population around the human beings .
Thackeray , along with Colorado - authors Philip Pieterse from the University of Johannesburg and Louis Scott from the University of the Free State , uncovered the Pt capitulum in ancient peat down payment at the Wonderkrater web site in South Africa ’s Limpopo Province .
Locations where ~12,800-year-old platinum spikes have been recorded on Earth.Image: (Francis Thackeray/Wits University)
“ Our determination at least partly corroborate the extremely controversial Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis , ” explained Thackeray in apress release . “ We seriously need to explore the sight that an asteroid shock somewhere on Earth may have caused climate change on a global scale , and contributed to some extent to the operation of extermination of large animals at the end of the Pleistocene , after the last ice years . ”
Indeed , the time of the allege wallop coincides with the disappearance of many animal mintage around the planet . Africa was no exception , as the Young Dryas flow ( 12,800 to 11,500 years ago ) was when several species , admit jumbo buffalo , zebras , and wildebeest , went nonextant . At the same clip , there ’s grounds from this flow that human populations might have also suffered . The Clovis people of North America , for example , were suddenly bring forth fewer stone shaft during this geological period , and a similar cliff in pit tool output has been documented among the Robberg culture of southern Africa .
“ We can not be certain , but a cosmic impact could have affected human as a result of local change in environment and the availability of food resources , associated with sudden clime change , ” said Thackeray .
The new newspaper publisher also report the discovery of ancient pollen at Wonderkrater that also see back to the Young Dryas period . Chemical depth psychology of this fossilize pollen item to temperature declines , which nicely cooccur with a similar cooling period in the Northern Hemisphere .
Allen West , a retire American geologist whostudiesthe Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis , say the new paper is important “ because it suggests that the Younger Dryas impact event had global effects . ” Previously , scientist “ knew that it affected nearly all of the Northern Hemisphere , but not the South , ” he drop a line to Gizmodo . “ Then , lately , another subject was release showing a atomic number 78 tip at Pilauco , Chile , suggest that South America was affected . Now , we love that southern Africa was affected as well , intimately 8,000 kilometers [ 5,000 miles ] forth from the close similar website in Syria , making this a global event . ”
It ’s important to point out that the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis is a highly controversial mind , hold the lack of grounds . critic havesaidan “ an age discrepancy ” exists “ between dissimilar sites where proposed impact marker have been notice , and that much of the grounds , such as charismatic microspherules , nanodiamonds , shocked quartz , and other minerals , are ambiguous in nature and subject to interpretation . It also does n’t help that an tie in shock volcanic crater has n’t been linked to the supposed event .
https://gizmodo.com/a-massive-impact-crater-has-been-detected-beneath-green-1830437095
That say , afascinating discoveryfrom 2018 divulge the comportment of a hidden shock volcanic crater beneath the Hiawatha Glacier in Greenland . This crater measures around 31 kilometer ( 19 miles ) widely , and it struck the Earth at some point between 3 million and 12,000 years ago . This could very well be the encroachment crater from the Young Dryas event , but more evidence is needed . When Gizmodocoveredthe discovery of this volcanic crater last year , we ask Nicolaj Larsen , an Aarhus University geologist who contributed to the discovery , to excuse the rather sizable dating discrepancy :
It is right that the volcanic crater is not well dated , but there ’s good evidence that it is geologically immature , that is , it form within the last 2 to 3 million years , and most probable it is as youthful as the last Ice Age [ which terminate around 12,000 years ago ] . We are currently try out to come up with theme on how to date the impact . One idea is to drill through the frappe and get bedrock samples that can be used for numeral dating .
Nailing down a tighter date would be helpful as far as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis is pertain . Unsurprisingly , Thackeray already has eyes on this crater , enounce “ it might possibly have been the very place where a large meteorite struck the planet Earth 12,800 years ago , ” and that a meteorite of this size would have mostly sure as shooting resulted in “ worldwide effect . ”
So , still no sure - fire verification that Earth got hit back then , but this possibleness stay on to intrigue .
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