Last year a 26-member team from 16 institutions proposed that a cosmic impact event, possibly by multiple airbursts of comets, set off a 1,300-year-long cold spell known as the Younger Dryas, fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and led to the extinction of a large range of animals, including mammoths, across North America. The team's paper was published in the Oct. 9, 2007, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.More details at Science Daily.
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"The nanodiamonds that we found at all six locations exist only in sediments associated with the Younger Dryas Boundary layers, not above it or below it," said Kennett, a UO archaeologist. "These discoveries provide strong evidence for a cosmic impact event at approximately 12,900 years ago that would have had enormous environmental consequences for plants, animals and humans across North America."
North America hit by meteorite 12,900 years ago
Posted on Sunday, January 04 2009 @ 19:16 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
The finding of abundant tiny particles of diamond at six North American sites provide strong evidence for a cosmic impact event about 12,900 years ago that would have had enormous consequences for plant and animal life across the continent: