Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences

Moore, Christopher; West, Allen; LeCompte, Malcolm A.; Brooks, Mark J.; Daniel, I. Randolph; Goodyear, Albert C.; Ferguson, Terry A.; Ivester, Andrew H.; Feathers, James K.; Kennett, James P.; Tankersley, Kenneth B.; Adedeji, Adetayo; Bunch, T. E.

doi:10.1038/srep44031

Cited by 67 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Their results indicate that extraterrestrial Pt settled out of the atmosphere into a 21-y interval of ice, rising 100 times above background at 12,822 5 140 cal BP, within the range 12,836-12,815 cal BP. Including this discovery, there have been multiple independent reports of Pt abundance peaks in the YDB layer at 22 sites in North America, Europe, and Asia: one site in Greenland (Petaev et al 2013b), one site in Russia (Andronikov et al 2014), four sites in Lithuania (Andronikov et al 2015), one site on the French-Italian border (Mahaney et al 2016b), two sites in the Netherlands (Andronikov et al 2016b), one site in Belgium (Andronikov et al 2016b), and 12 sites in the United States (Andronikov and Andronikova 2016;Moore et al 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments

Wolbach¹,

Ballard²,

Mayewski³

et al. 2018

The Journal of Geology

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A B S T R A C TPart 1 of this study investigated evidence of biomass burning in global ice records, and here we continue to test the hypothesis that an impact event at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) caused an anomalously intense episode of biomass burning at ∼12.8 ka on a multicontinental scale (North and South America, Europe, and Asia). Quantitative analyses of charcoal and soot records from 152 lakes, marine cores, and terrestrial sequences reveal a major peak in biomass burning at the Younger Dryas (YD) onset that appears to be the highest during the latest Quaternary. For the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (K-Pg) impact event, concentrations of soot were previously utilized to estimate the global amount of biomass burned, and similar measurements suggest that wildfires at the YD onset rapidly consumed ∼10 million km 2 of Earth's surface, or ∼9% of Earth's biomass, considerably more than for the K-Pg impact. Bayesian analyses and age regressions demonstrate that ages for YDB peaks in charcoal and soot across four continents are synchronous with the ages of an abundance peak in platinum in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core and of the YDB impact event (12,835-12,735 cal BP). Thus, existing evidence indicates that the YDB impact event caused an anomalously large episode of biomass burning, resulting in extensive atmospheric soot/dust loading that triggered an "impact winter." This, in turn, triggered abrupt YD cooling and other climate changes, reinforced by climatic feedback mechanisms, including Arctic sea ice expansion, rerouting of North American continental runoff, and subsequent ocean circulation changes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments

Wolbach¹,

Ballard²,

Mayewski³

et al. 2018

The Journal of Geology

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“…The consequences of the impact (possibly a cometary airburst) were hypothesised to have destabilised the Laurentide Ice Sheet, cooled NH climate, and contributed to the megafaunal extinction characteristic of the period (Firestone et al, 2007;Kennett et al, 2009). The discovery of significant amounts of impactderived spherules scattered across North America, Europe, Africa, and South America at ∼ 12.80 ± 0.15 ka BP further supports the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) (Wittke et al, 2013), as does apparently extraterrestrially derived platinum, found initially in Greenland ice (Petaev et al, 2013) and subsequently globally (Moore et al, 2017), coincident with the YD onset. However, other research questions the evidence of an impact, focussing on perceived errors in the dating of the YD boundary layer (Holliday, 2015;Meltzer et al, 2014), the misidentification of terrestrially derived carbon spherules, shocked quartz, and nanodiamonds as extraterrestrial (Pinter et al, 2011;van Hoesel et al, 2015;Tian et al, 2011), the non-uniqueness of YD nanodiamond evidence , and inconsistencies regarding the physics of bolide trajectories and impacts (Boslough et al, 2013).…”

Section: Compatibility With Other Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 58%

Evaluating the link between the sulfur-rich Laacher See volcanic eruption and the Younger Dryas climate anomaly

2018

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Abstract. The Younger Dryas is considered the archetypal millennial-scale climate change event, and identifying its cause is fundamental for thoroughly understanding climate systematics during deglaciations. However, the mechanisms responsible for its initiation remain elusive, and both of the most researched triggers (a meltwater pulse or a bolide impact) are controversial. Here, we consider the problem from a different perspective and explore a hypothesis that Younger Dryas climate shifts were catalysed by the unusually sulfurrich 12.880 ± 0.040 ka BP eruption of the Laacher See volcano (Germany). We use the most recent chronology for the GISP2 ice core ion dataset from the Greenland ice sheet to identify a large volcanic sulfur spike coincident with both the Laacher See eruption and the onset of Younger Dryasrelated cooling in Greenland (i.e. the most recent abrupt Greenland millennial-scale cooling event, the Greenland Stadial 1, GS-1). Previously published lake sediment and stalagmite records confirm that the eruption's timing was indistinguishable from the onset of cooling across the North Atlantic but that it preceded westerly wind repositioning over central Europe by ∼ 200 years. We suggest that the initial short-lived volcanic sulfate aerosol cooling was amplified by ocean circulation shifts and/or sea ice expansion, gradually cooling the North Atlantic region and incrementally shifting the midlatitude westerlies to the south. The aerosol-related cooling probably only lasted 1-3 years, and the majority of Younger Dryas-related cooling may have been due to the seaice-ocean circulation positive feedback, which was particularly effective during the intermediate ice volume conditions characteristic of ∼ 13 ka BP. We conclude that the large and sulfur-rich Laacher See eruption should be considered a viable trigger for the Younger Dryas. However, future studies should prioritise climate modelling of high-latitude volcanism during deglacial boundary conditions in order to test the hypothesis proposed here.

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“…Despite many inconsistencies of the impact hypothesis, in particular concerning the physics of airbursts (Boslaugh et al 2013), geological evidence of such a catastrophic event is demonstrated by the dispersed glassy silicate and carbon spherules and nanodiamonds in the order of 10 million tons containing micron sized zircons and rutile, high-temperature melted glass, a wide spread platinum anomaly and occurrence of nanodiamonds ( Fig. 2) in eleven archaeological sites across North America (Bunch et al 2012;Moore et al 2017) and in the Greenland ice (Kennett et al 2009;Kurbatov et al 2010 Wittke et al (2013); Kinzie et al (2014).…”

Section: A Meteorite Impact As Trigger Of the Onset Of The Younger Dryasmentioning

confidence: 99%

12,800 years ago, Hellas and the World on Fire and Flood

Dietrich¹,

Lagios²

2019

JGES

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The controversial large cosmic impact hypothesis (~12,800 years BP) over the Northern Hemisphere explains not only wildfires everywhere but also the rapid cooling of the Younger Dryas by destabilizing and melting parts of the Laurentide and probably Fennoscandian Ice Shield; flooding large parts of North America and draining into the North Atlantic, which caused a slowdown or shutdown of warm water northward. The assumption of an impact origin of the approx. 20 km in diameter and only 100 m deep bowl-shaped size of the Holocene Pagasitic Gulf (Thessaly, central Greece), is based on a large negative gravimetric residual anomaly and Quaternary morphotectonic criteria along its shores, the shape of embankments and mountainous surroundings; such as collapse structures, slumping and landslides. Quaternary surficial cataclastic and brittle deformation from macroscopic to microscopic scale is present in many locations; e.g. micron size close-spaced planar fractures (PF"s) in quartz and calcite. A modeled 1km comet with a density of 1500kg/m 3 and an impact velocity of 50km/s fitted best all observed ground parameters, that generated airburst overpressures of 242 MPa causing cataclysmic wild fires and subsequent flooding.

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Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences

Cited by 67 publications

References 30 publications

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments

Evaluating the link between the sulfur-rich Laacher See volcanic eruption and the Younger Dryas climate anomaly

12,800 years ago, Hellas and the World on Fire and Flood

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