Younger Dryas: Canadian Comet Impact Triggered Climate Shift?

[jim mcnamara]

Pre-publish article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/0...d_for_triggering_younger_dryas_climate_shift/

Mukul Sharma of Dartmouth claims there is very good evidence that the extremely rapid draining of Lake Agassiz about 12900ya is only a partial contributor to the cold period (Younger Dryas) that started 12900ya. There is geological evidence of a large meteor impact in Quebec at the same time. He claims that is the primary cause.

The register article mentions other posited effects: start of the Megafauna extinction, an increase agriculture by Native American peoples.

I think we should reserve judgement until the paper is out. But a "head's up" is in order.
This will be out shortly in PNAS, which is kind of home to somewhat speculative articles sometimes. IMO. Obviously they are refereed papers.

 

[Evo]

Thank you Jim!

 

[Huyen401]

I find this theory very intriguing and plausible. The idea that a large meteor impact in Quebec could have triggered the Younger Dryas period is definitely worth exploring. It's interesting to consider how this event could have affected not only the climate, but also the extinction of megafauna and the development of agriculture by Native American peoples. I agree that we should wait for the paper to be published and thoroughly reviewed before making any conclusions, but I'm definitely looking forward to reading it. Thank you for sharing this article and bringing this theory to our attention.