New geological evidence unearthed in the US suggests that a catastrophic cosmic event may have wiped out a once-thriving culture more than 12,800 years ago.
Researchers analyzing sediment samples in California, Arizona and New Mexico discovered shocked quartz, tiny mineral grains deformed under extreme pressure, dating back to around 10,800 BC.
Shocked quartz forms when minerals are subjected to sudden, intense pressures such as those generated by a meteorite impact or large-scale atmospheric explosion.
The presence of this material at the sites indicates that an airburst or impact event likely devastated large portions of the continent, igniting wildfires, destabilizing the climate and wiping out many of the massive Ice Age animals that roamed the region.
The dating of the shocked quartz coincided with the rapid disappearance of the Clovis people, a technologically advanced hunter-gatherer culture that had dominated much of North America for centuries.
Archaeological evidence has shown that their distinctive stone tools vanish abruptly from the record shortly after this period.
This timing also marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas, a sudden and dramatic cooling event that lasted about 1,200 years.
Some researchers, including well-known author Graham Hancock, have long proposed that a giant ‘Doomsday comet’ passed through Earth’s atmosphere, which blocked sunlight, disrupted ocean currents and abruptly plunged the Northern Hemisphere into a sudden, century-long cooling.
The evidence of the cosmic collision was found in California, Arizona and New Mexico
The team identified shocked quartz (pictured) in the samples, which forms when minerals are subjected to sudden, intense pressures such as those generated by a meteorite impact or large-scale atmospheric explosion
Shocked quartz forms when the crystal lattice of minerals is irreversibly deformed under extreme pressures, often millions of times greater than normal atmospheric pressure.
In the new study, the grains were carefully extracted from sediment layers precisely dated to the onset of the Younger Dryas.
‘The onset of the Younger Dryas (YD closely coincided with two significant events: the sudden extinction of >70% of North American megafauna (35 genera), including mammoths, camels, horses, and saber-toothed cats and the collapse of the Clovis technocomplex,’ reads the study published in PLOS ONE.
The team collected sediment samples from Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, Murray Springs, Arizona and Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, California.
Blackwater Draw is a Clovis-type site where the first Clovis artifacts were found just below a 12,800-year-old black mat, marking the onset of the Younger Dryas and the end of the Clovis technocomplex.
Evidence from the site, including a nearby Clovis-butchered mammoth, suggests a major environmental disruption coinciding with megafaunal extinctions and a significant human population decline.
Murray Springs preserves terminal Clovis artifacts and extinct megafauna remains.
Those are also under a black mat, which contained a butchered mammoth and hundreds of footprints rapidly buried after the proposed Younger Dryas event.
Some researchers, including well-known author Graham Hancock, have long proposed that a giant ‘Doomsday comet’ passed through Earth’s atmosphere, which blocked sunlight, disrupted ocean currents and abruptly plunged the Northern Hemisphere into a sudden, century-long cooling (stock)
Archaeological data indicate a post-Clovis human hiatus of several hundred years, supporting theories of population decline and abrupt cultural and ecological changes at the YD onset.
Arlington Canyon yielded Clovis-era human remains beneath a black mat, showing a 600- to 800-year gap before subsequent human occupation, highlighting a post-Clovis hiatus even in potential refuges.
The site also records the extinction of pygmy mammoths around 12,800, making it a key location for studying the impact of environmental disruptions during the Younger Dryas.
The team used 10 different lab techniques to identify glass-filled cracks in quartz and then ran computer simulations to determine the pressures and speeds needed to produce such shocks.
They found that the shocked quartz taken from the southwest US resembled samples found at nuclear airburst sites, Meteor Crater, and other YD sites in Syria, the eastern USA, the Netherlands and Venezuela.
Blackwater Draw is a Clovis-type site where the first Clovis artifacts were found just below a 12,800-year-old black mat, marking the onset of the Younger Dryas and the end of the Clovis technocomplex
Murray Springs preserves terminal Clovis artifacts and extinct megafauna remains. Those are also under a black mat, which contained a butchered mammoth and hundreds of footprints rapidly buried after the proposed Younger Dryas event
Arlington Canyon yielded Clovis-era human remains beneath a black mat, showing a 600- to 800-year gap before subsequent human occupation, highlighting a post-Clovis hiatus even in potential refuges
Many of these quartz grains showed signs of exposure to extremely high temperatures, above the melting point of quartz, which is 3,123 °F.
Some parts of the grains remain amorphous, and others have recrystallized.
Previous research has shown that melted silica within shock fractures indicates airburst- or impact-related shock, meaning these YD grains can be classified as ‘thermally and mechanically shocked quartz.’
‘These sites are among the best-documented in North America, each providing crucial evidence of an interrelationship between the collapse of the Clovis technocomplex and the extinction of the megafauna,’ the team shared.
‘The presence of airburst/impact-related materials at these key locations strengthens the temporal and spatial link between the proposed cosmic event and major ecological and cultural changes
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