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_Problem 22: No evidence for a continent-wide thermal gradient_.
The theory of Firestone and West suggests that an aerial explosion or
impact of a comet in the vicinity of eastern Canada delivered a shock to
the North American ice sheet causing the catastrophic release of glacial
meltwater producing floods that spread over the continent.
Micrometeorite crater depths evident in PaleoIndian chert samples are
found to decrease 20 fold when one proceeds from Michigan to Arizona. So
one would expect to see a decline in flooding intensity as well with
increased distance from the explosion or impact site. However, there is
no indication that flooding intensity declined from eastern North
America to Siberia on the west or to Europe on the east.
Also their proposal that the heat of the explosion would have
created a ground level firestorm and that this would account for the
formation of the black mat must explain why it appears as well in Europe
as the Usselo Horizon. In fact, iridium levels in the European horizon
were found to be higher than those found in the North American black mat
(Kloosterman, 2007; Firestone, et al., 2006, p. 352
). The comet explosion theory could circumvent this
by proposing simultaneous impacts in various parts of the globe.
However, as was demonstrated earlier, comets from such a supernova would
have been few and far between. So, it is difficult to imagine a
worldwide barrage, at least with the supernova theory.
_The superwave explanation for the mass extinction_. In contrast to
the comet theory, the superwave theory predicts an extended hazardous
period, one that transpires over thousands of years with varying
intensity. Hence it is able to account for the extended duration of the
megafaunal die-off evident in Meltzer and Mead's histogram. As seen in
figure 11, the rise in cosmic ray intensity coincided with the rise in
megafaunal death rate. As a result of its injection of cometary and
interstellar dust, and through its effect on the Sun and Earth, a
superwave cataclysm would have been able to abruptly alter the Earth's
climate (e.g., produce stadials and interstadials). It would also have
increased the Sun's luminosity and level of flaring activity. These
effects would have adversely affected biological organisms over several
millennia and would all have contributed to the demise of the megafauna.
A diagram of the various ways in which a superwave event would have
been hazardous to life is presented in chapter 3 of my dissertation
(LaViolette, 1983a ); download chapter 3 excerpt
. Interestingly, the model I had
proposed in 1983 postulated two cosmic ray peaks arriving during the
deglacial interval, one beginning around 14,200 years BP and lasting for
500 years and a second beginning around 13,500 years BP and lasting for
1000 years. The timing of these peaks turned out to be not far off from
what the polar ice record shows.
(click to enlarge)
Figure 11. Megafaunal death rate histogram
(hatched profile) compared to beryllium-10
flux in the Byrd ice core (lower gray
graph). Be-10 peaks are indicated by arrows.
A superwave cause would explain why unusual climatic, hydrologic,
geomagnetic, and radiological events were taking place during this
period of mass extinction. In particular, the geomagnetic flip that
occurred at the first death-rate peak and the unstable geomagnetic field
that persisted throughout this extinction episode would be a direct
result of the opposing polarity imposed by the ring-current magnetic
field. The ring current field is the magnetic field generated by the
equatorial drift of solar cosmic rays trapped in the Earth's storm-time
radiation belts and becomes particularly strong during the arrival of an
intense solar proton event (LaViolette, 1983a, 1987a, 1990
).
As mentioned earlier, the C-14 rise at the Allerod/Younger Dryas
boundary may be attributed to the intense solar flare storms that were
occurring at that time. The Be-10 flux is observed to dip during the
interval 13,400 to 12,750 years b2k; see arrow markers in figure 2
and figure 3 . Since this period
coincides with the rise in C-14 concentration during the AL/YD
transition, we may infer that the cosmic ray screening effect of the
Sun's enhanced solar wind strength was able to overcome the propensity
for Galactic cosmic rays to elevate the Be-10 flux during this interval,
suggesting that solar flare activity was quite high at that time.
The termination at the Clovis horizon could have been due to a
particularly powerful solar proton event that was sufficiently strong to
overpower the geomagnetic field and contact the Earth's atmosphere
(LaViolette, 1990 ). The four largest C-14
production spurts to occur over the extent of the 4,000-year Cariaco
Basin C-14 record (figure 1 ), occurred on 13,023 ±
10, 12,954 ± 10, 12,887 ± 10, and 12,689 ± 10 calendar yrs b2k (Cariaco
Basin chronology). They are spaced from one another by intervals of 69 ±
4 years, 67 ± 4 years, and 198 ± 4 years, that is, by three, three, and
nine 22.2-year solar cycle intervals. Three of these events occurred
during the Alleröd-to-Younger Dryas climatic transition. Of these, the
12,887 years b2k solar proton event was most likely the terminal event
ending the Pleistocene extinction since through its association with the
biomass combustion episode recorded in the Greenland ice record, we may
connect it to the formation of the black mat which overlies the bones of
the extinct Pleistocene mammals.
During the 12,887 and 12,689 years b2k events, C-14 jumped 2
percent. Based on the time interval between successive sediment samples,
these jumps each occured within 8 to 12 years. This is 5 times the rise
in radiocarbon produced during the course of a typical solar cycle in
modern times. By comparison, the solar proton event that impacted during
the 1956 solar maximum, which was one of the largest in modern times,
produced a C-14 increase of only 0.016 percent (4% of the variation
produced over the course of a typical solar cycle) (Usoskin, et al.,
2006). So, we may infer that the 12,887 and 12,689 years b2k C-14 spurt
events were 125 times more intense than this record breaking 1956 event.
Since the 1956 solar proton event was able to produce a 1% decrease in
the geomagnetic field, it stands to reason that these ice age events,
which were 125 times stronger, would have entirely overpowered the
Earth's field, allowing the full intensity of their solar cosmic ray
barrage to contact the Earth's atmosphere.
By carefully examining the high-resolution electrical conductivity
measurement (ECM) data obtained for the GISP2 ice core by Taylor (1993),
I have located an acidity spike at a depth of 1708.65 meters that dates
at 12,883 ±10 years b2k using the Cariaco chronology and that coincides
with the sudden rise in ammonium, formate, and nitrate ion, as well as
with the sudden climatic warming (LaViolette, 2008). The acidity spike
was a very brief event, lasting less than five weeks, with an initial
rise that lasted less than two weeks. Hence we may conclude that it is a
record of a super sized solar proton event and that the C-14 spurt
recorded in the Cariaco Basin record was also an abrupt rise associated
with this solar event. All of the above ice core evidence together with
the closely correlating Cariaco Basin C-14 evidence makes a very strong
case that a very large solar proton event was the terminal event in the
Pleistocene extinction.
Also as I suggested in 1983, the anomalously young dates found in
many megafaunal remains could be evidence of exposure to an intense flux
of solar cosmic rays. I had proposed that excess C-14 may have been
created in situ when solar flare proton primaries produced thermal
neutron secondaries within the plant or animal tissues, these in turn
becoming captured by nitrogen atoms present there transmuting them into
excess C-14 (LaViolette, 1983a, ch. 10 ); download
chapter 10 excerpt . Topping
subsequently proposed a similar in situ C-14 production mechanism to
explain the anomalously young dates found at PaleoIndian sites (Topping,
1998; Firestone and Topping, 2001 ). However, one
difference is that my 1983 model postulates that the majority of the
incident particles were protons, not neutrons. These would have passed
through the Earth's nitrogen atmosphere without producing excessive
amounts of C-14, thereby avoiding the problem that Southon and Taylor
were concerned about in their critique of the Firestone-Topping paper.
Topping (2007 ) has long preferred the giant solar
flare alternative over Firestone's supernova theory as the cause of the
extinction. Although the article he coauthored with Firestone in 2001
emphasized the supernova alternative, he advocates a ground contacting
SPE as the cause of the elevated radioactivity levels he found at the
Clovis horizon. However, he proposes the event occurred 400 years later
around 12,500 years ago.
It is likely that the Earth's surface would have received
nonuniform exposure to solar flare cosmic rays during a
ground-contacting SPE. Particles confined by the collapsing geomagnetic
field lines could have been dumped at high intensities in some
localities leaving others weakly exposed. This could explain why date
anomalies vary in magnitude from one place to another or from one animal
remain to another.
In summary, the superwave theory is compatible with the idea that
cometary masses had impacted the Earth during the period of the
megafaunal extinction. As mentioned earlier, the theory predicts that
such bodies would have been injected into the solar system at an
increased rate during that time. But it is apparent that a comet impact
was not the sole cause of the extinction. The agent causing both the
disappearance of large animals and triggering the influx of comets at
that time was not a supernova, but more likely a Galactic superwave.
References are listed on page 12 .
A chronology of discoveries relevant to the
extraterrestrial cause of the megafaunal extinction
is presented on page 13 .
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