(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have long known that a large-scale catastrophe occurred on Earth 13 thousand years ago, but they could only guess about its causes. Now there is new data shedding light on this question.
A large-scale study started in 2018. His goal was to test the hypothesis that in the early dryas the Earth was the victim of a catastrophic impact of a giant comet.
What did you find out
- This event happened 13,000 years ago, when the planet had already left the glaciation period, but suddenly froze again for a couple of centuries.
- The reason was known before – filling the atmosphere with an incredible amount of dust and ash. However, it was not clear what generated them.
- The previous version of the reason is the eruption of the supervolcano Laah in the territory of modern Germany. Then the nearby lands were covered with a layer of ash about 50 meters thick.
- However, a new study has uncovered in the mythology of the ancient peoples indications of a comet impact that caused an incredible fire.
- According to calculations, then 10 million square kilometers, or about 9 percent of the entire biomass of the planet, burned down, and the living conditions for already more than reasonable human tribes changed catastrophically, which could not but affect their culture.
The rest of the research revealed anomalous amounts of platinum in the layers of ash and soot. This element is often found in comets and asteroids.
The sediment layer itself contains many biomass combustion products such as ammonium and nitrate. The study of preserved pollen samples showed that the vast pine forests were destroyed immediately, and poplars, well adapted to such conditions, populated the devastated lands.
Scientists believe that this ancient comet had a diameter of about 100 kilometers . It probably fell apart, and its remnants are still in the solar system.
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