bayesian chronological analyses consistent with synchronous age of 12 835 12 735 cal b p for younger dryas boundary on four continents the younger dryas impact hypothesis posits that a cosmic impact across much of the northern hemisphere deposited the younger dryas boundary ydb layer containing peak abundances in a variable assemblage of proxies including magnetic and glassy impact related spherules high temperature minerals and melt glass nanodiamonds carbon spherules aciniform carbon platinum and osmium bayesian chronological modeling was applied to 354 dates from 23 stratigraphic sections in 12 countries on four continents to establish a modeled ydb age range for this event of 12 835 12 735 cal b p at 95 probability this range overlaps that of a peak in extraterrestrial platinum in the greenland ice sheet and of the earliest age of the younger dryas climate episode in six proxy records suggesting a causal connection between the ydb impact event and the younger dryas two statistical tests indicate that both modeled and unmodeled ages in the 30 records are consistent with synchronous deposition of the ydb layer within the limits of dating uncertainty 100 y the widespread distribution of the ydb layer suggests that it may serve as a datum layer

surface climate variations over the north atlantic ocean during winter 1900 1989 abstract the low frequency variability of the surface climate over the north atlantic during winter is described using 90 years of weather observations from the comprehensive ocean atmosphere data set results are based on empirical orthogonal function analysis of four components of the climate system sea surface temperature sst air temperature wind and sea level pressure an important mode of variability of the wintertime surface climate over the north atlantic during this century is characterized by a dipole pattern in ssts and surface air temperatures with anomalies of one sign cast of newfoundland and anomalies of the opposite polarity off the southeast coast of the united states wind fluctuations occur locally over the regions of large surface temperature anomalies with stronger than normal winds overlying cooler than normal ssts this mode exhibits variability on quasi decadal and biennial time scales the decadal fluctuations are irregular in length averaging 9 years before 1945 and 1

cosmogenic nuclide enhancement via deposition from long period comets as a test of the younger dryas impact hypothesis abstract we explore the idea that detectable excursions in 26 al may arise from direct deposition by any bolide and excursions in 14 c and 10 be abundances in the atmosphere may result from long period comet impacts this is very different from the usual processes of production by cosmic rays within earth s atmosphere long period comets experience greatly increased cosmic ray flux beyond the protection of the sun s magnetic field we report the computed amount of 14 c 10 be and 26 al present on long period comets as a function of comet mass we find that the amount of nuclide mass on large long period comets entering the earth s atmosphere may be sufficient for creating anomalies in the records of 14 c and 10 be from past impacts in particular the estimated mass of the proposed younger dryas comet is consistent with its having deposited sufficient isotopes to account for recorded 14 c and 10 be increases at that time the 26 al 10 be ratio is much larger in extraterrestrial objects than in the atmosphere and so we note that measuring this ratio in ice cores is a suitable definitive test for the younger dryas impact hypothesis even if the hypothetical bolide is not a long period comet and or did not contribute to the 14 c and 10 be increases

gisp2 oxygen isotope ratios the gisp2 oxygen isotope record with its high resolution detail yields crucial information on past climate change the glacial 18o oscillations of the gisp2 core with their very fast onsets are templates of a prototype oscillation of variable duration with an amplitude of 3 9 the halfway mark of the cold warm transition is reached in 2 years the top is reached in 50 years the 18o time gradient of the leading front is about 7 8 per 100 yr after reaching the top 18o slowly declines by 0 14 per 100 yr the duration of 18o decline varies from a couple of centuries for fast oscillations to about 4000 yr for slower ones the subsequent 18o downturn during the warm cold transition has a 18o time gradient of 3 2 per 100 yr and lasts about 80 yr

a new greenland deep ice core the polar ice sheets are rich sources of information on past atmospheric conditions including paleoclimates a new deep ice core has been drilled in south greenland comparison of the oxygen isotopic profile with that from camp century and with a deep sea foraminifera record indicates that the new core reaches back to about 90 000 years before present in a continuous sequence the details in the wisconsin part of the ice core records seem to be climatically significant and the general trends reveal all of the relevant emiliani stages recorded in deep sea cores the redated camp century record suggests a dramatic termination of the eem sangamon interglacial

terrestrial carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios from cretaceous tertiary boundary nanodiamonds one hypothesis for the origin of the nanometer size diamonds found at the cretaceous tertiary k t boundary is that they are relict interstellar diamond grains carried by a postulated asteroid the 13 c 12 c and 15 n 14 n ratios of the diamonds from two sites in north america however show that the diamonds are two component mixtures differing in carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition and nitrogen abundance samples from a site from italy show no evidence for either diamond component all the isotopic signatures obtained from the k t boundary are material well distinguished from known meteoritic diamonds particularly the fine grain interstellar diamonds that are abundant in primitive chondrites the k t diamonds were most likely produced during the impact of the asteroid with earth or in a plasma resulting from the associated fireball

the younger dryas impact hypothesis a cosmic catastrophe in this paper we review the evidence for the younger dryas impact hypothesis ydih which proposes that at 12 9k cal a bp north america south america europe and the middle east were subjected to some sort of extraterrestrial event this purported event is proposed as a catastrophic process responsible for terminal pleistocene environmental changes onset of yd cooling continent scale wildfires extinction of late pleistocene mammals and demise of the clovis culture in north america the earliest well documented continent scale settlement of the region the basic physics in the ydih is not in accord with the physics of impacts nor the basic laws of physics no yd boundary ydb crater craters or other direct indicators of an impact are known age control is weak to non existent at 26 of the 29 localities claimed to have evidence for the ydih attempts to reproduce the results of physical and geochemical analyses used to support the ydih have failed or show that many indicators are not unique to an impact nor to 12 9k cal a bp the depositional environments of purported indicators at most sites tend to concentrate particulate matter and probably created many ydb zones geomorphic stratigraphic and fire records show no evidence of any sort of catastrophic changes in the environment at or immediately following the ydb late pleistocene extinctions varied in time and across space archeological data provide no indication of population decline demographic collapse or major adaptive shifts at or just after 12 9 ka the data and the hypotheses generated by ydih proponents are contradictory inconsistent and incoherent copyright 2014 john wiley sons ltd

presolar diamond sic and graphite in primitive chondrites abundances as a function of meteorite class and petrologic type abstract acid resistant residues were prepared for eighteen meteorites from seven chondrite classes using improved procedures designed to minimize loss of presolar grains noble gases were measured by stepped pyrolysis and the abundances of five exotic noble gas components were used to determine abundances of diamond sic and graphite diamond separates were prepared to check diamond abundances determined from noble gases diamond and sic were found in unmetamorphosed members of all seven chondrite classes and evidence for graphite was found in orgued ci and ll3 0 3 1 chondrites our data and noble gas and stable isotope data in the literature show that presolar grains were incorporated into all chondrite classes the grains are sited in the fine grained matrix and their abundances within the matrix reflect mainly the degree of metamorphism suffered by the host meteorite the pattern of metamorphic destruction differs from class to class in unequilibrated ordinary chondrites uocs graphite is most easily destroyed followed by sic and then diamond no presolar grains remain in uocs of petrologic type 3 8 whose matrices have been completely recrystallized in eh chondrites diamond and sic survive much more severe metamorphism than in uocs with sic apparently more stable than diamond presolar graphite was not detected in cv3 and c03 chondrites diamond appears to be more stable than sic and graphite again is missing inferred premetamorphic diamond abundances matrix normalized vary by a factor of 2 2 between classes with eh cv and co chondrites having higher initial abundances than orgueil similar diamond sic ratios are observed in most classes and differences in the ratio can be tied to secondary processing suggesting that all chondrite classes sampled the same solar system wide reservoir of presolar grains differences in initial abundances between classes appear to correlate with chemical and physical properties of the host meteorites these bulk properties and variations in presolar grain abundances both may be the result of thermal processing of presolar dust in the accretion disk

nanodiamonds in the younger dryas boundary sediment layer we report abundant nanodiamonds in sediments dating to 12 9 0 1 thousand calendar years before the present at multiple locations across north america selected area electron diffraction patterns reveal two diamond allotropes in this boundary layer but not above or below that interval cubic diamonds form under high temperature pressure regimes and n diamonds also require extraordinary conditions well outside the range of earth9s typical surficial processes but common to cosmic impacts n diamond concentrations range from 10 to 3700 parts per billion by weight comparable to amounts found in known impact layers these diamonds provide strong evidence for earth9s collision with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets at the onset of the younger dryas cool interval producing multiple airbursts and possible surface impacts with severe repercussions for plants animals and humans in north america

nanodiamond rich layer across three continents consistent with major cosmic impact at 12 800 cal bp abstracta major cosmic impact event has been proposed at the onset of the younger dryas yd cooling episode at 12 800 150 years before present forming the yd boundary ydb layer distributed over 50 million km2 on four continents in 24 dated stratigraphic sections in 10 countries of the northern hemisphere the ydb layer contains a clearly defined abundance peak in nanodiamonds nds a major cosmic impact proxy observed nd polytypes include cubic diamonds lonsdaleite like crystals and diamond like carbon nanoparticles called n diamond and i carbon the nd abundances in bulk ydb sediments ranged up to 500 ppb mean 200 ppb and that in carbon spherules up to 3700 ppb mean 750 ppb 138 of 205 sediment samples 67 contained no detectable nds isotopic evidence indicates that ydb nds were produced from terrestrial carbon as with other impact diamonds and were not derived from the impactor itself the ydb layer is also marked by abundance peaks in other impact related proxies including

interdecadal variations of the thermohaline circulation in a coupled ocean atmosphere model abstract a fully coupled ocean atmosphere model is shown to have irregular oscillations of the thermohaline circulation in the north atlantic ocean with a time scale of approximately 50 years the irregular oscillation appears to be driven by density anomalies in the sinking region of the thermohaline circulation approximately 52 n to 72 n combined with much smaller density anomalies of opposite sign in the broad rising region the spatial pattern of see surface temperature anomalies associated with this irregular oscillation bears an encouraging resemblance to a pattern of observed interdecadal variability in the north atlantic the anomalies of sea surface temperature induce model surface air temperature anomalies over the northern north atlantic arctic and northwestern europe

comparison between greenland ice margin an ice core oxygen 18 records old ice for paleoenvironmental studies retrieved by deep core drilling in the central regions of the big ice sheets can also be retrieved from the ice sheet margins the d18o content of the surface ice was studied at 15 different greenland ice margin locations at some locations two or more records were obtained along closely spaced parallel sampling profiles showing good reproducibility of the records we present ice margin d18o records reaching back into the pleistocene many of the characteristic d18o variations known from greenland deep ice cores can be recognized allowing an approximate time scale to be established along the ice margin records a flow line model is used to determine the location on the ice sheet where the margin ice was originally deposited as snow the pleistocene holocene d18o change at the deposition sites is determined by comparing the d18o values in the ice margin record to the present 18o values of the surface snow at the deposition sites on the northern slope of the greenland ice sheet the pleistocene holocene d18o change is c 10 per mil in contrast to a change of 6 7 per mil at locations near the central ice divide this is in accordance with deep ice core results we conclude that d18o records measured on ice from the greenland ice sheet margin provide useful information about past climate and dynamics of the ice sheet and thus are important and cheap supplements to deep ice core records

gas records from the west greenland ice margin covering the last glacial termination a horizontal ice core abstract certain sites along ice sheet margins provide an easily accessible and almost unlimited supply of ancient ice at the surface measurements of gases in trapped air from ice outcropping at pakitsoq west greenland demonstrate that ancient air is mostly well preserved no alterations in 18 o atm and 15 n of n 2 are apparent and alterations in methane are found in only a few ice sections using measurements of these gases we have unambiguously identified a stratigraphic section containing ice from the end of last glacial period as well as bolling allerod younger dryas and preboreal intervals extensive sections of ice from the holocene and most ages within the last glacial period are probably also present very accurate dating has been possible in the ice section containing the younger dryas preboreal abrupt climate transition signal the ice at pakitsoq is folded and non uniformly thinned with many cross cutting bands of bubble free ice and dust the cross cutting features are associated with anomalies in both the gas and the ice records with careful sampling to avoid these the ice at pakitsoq is suitable for recovery of large volume samples of the ancient atmosphere for analysis of trace constituents such as 14 ch 4

quantifying the distribution of nanodiamonds in pre younger dryas to recent age deposits along bull creek oklahoma panhandle usa high levels of nanodiamonds nds have been used to support the transformative hypothesis that an extraterrestrial et event comet explosion triggered younger dryas changes in temperature flora and fauna assemblages and human adaptations firestone rb et al 2007 proc natl acad sci usa 104 41 16016 16021 we evaluate this hypothesis by establishing the distribution of nds within the bull creek drainage of the beaver river basin in the oklahoma panhandle the earlier report of an abundance spike of nds in the bull creek i younger dryas boundary soil is confirmed although no pure cubic diamonds were identified the lack of hexagonal nds suggests bull creek i is not near any impact site potential hexagonal nds at bull creek were found to be more consistent with graphene graphane an additional nd spike is found in deposits of late holocene through the modern age indicating nds are not unique to the younger dryas boundary nd distributions do not correlate with depositional environment pedogenesis climate perturbations periods of surface stability or cultural activity

interdecadal variations in north atlantic sea surface temperature and associated atmospheric conditions abstract evidence is presented for a distinct pattern of ocean atmosphere relationship associated with interdecadal variability in the north atlantic region using a century of surface marine observations it is shown that middle and high latitude sea surface temperature sst display a long term fluctuation with negative anomalies before 1920 and during the 1970s and 1980s positive sst conditions prevailed from about 1930 to 1960 the pattern of interdecadal sst variability is constructed by subtracting the average field during 15 cold years from that during a similar interval of warm years the early century warming and the more recent cooling display a similar spatial pattern in both cases the pattern is basin scale and largely of one polarity with maxima in the vicinity of iceland in the labrador sea and northeast of bermuda the corresponding differences in surface atmospheric conditions are determined by averaging and subtracting in the same manner fields of sea level pressure slp and surf

on the nature of decadal anomalies in north atlantic sea surface temperature north atlantic sea surface temperature data from the comprehensive ocean atmosphere data set were used to investigate the behavior of temperature anomalies on multiple year timescales during the period 1948 1992 monthly anomaly time series for each 2 square from the equator to 70 n were low pass filtered at 4 years and normalized by the local standard deviation attention is focused on the extreme events the upper and lower deciles of the anomaly time series a 45 year sequence of january maps shows the already familiar phenomena of generally cold conditions prior to 1951 a long warm interval from 1951 through 1967 and again a cold period from 1968 through 1977 the years 1978 through 1982 were largely devoid of persistent strong anomalies but moderate cold conditions returned during 1983 1986 warm conditions dominated the north atlantic from 1987 onward within these thermal epochs however a total of five cold anomaly features and nine warm anomaly features have been identified these features have individual lifetimes of 3 to 10 years a typical size is 20 of latitude or longitude but they range from barely detectable to spanning the width of the basin the latter especially in lower latitudes most of the anomalies move long distances along certain preferred paths these paths generally follow the routes of the subarctic and subtropical gyres anomalies originating off north america along the boundary between the gyres move northeastward toward the norwegian sea along the approximate route of the north atlantic current midlatitude anomalies originating at the eastern boundary tend to spread both northward and southward along the coast the speed of these movements 1 3 km d 1 is generally less than the expected speed of the near surface ocean circulation simple ideas about the effects of beta dynamics and air sea heat exchanges are briefly considered but do not provide a satisfactory explanation for the movements of the anomalies the long timescale of these extreme events and the continuity of their movements suggest a useful degree of predictability of sea surface temperature based on persistence and propagation of features

the abrupt termination of the younger dryas climate event previous studies on two deep greenland ice cores have shown that a long series of climate oscillations characterized the late weichselian glaciation in the north atlantic region1 and that the last glacial cold period the younger dryas ended abruptly 10 700 years ago2 here we further focus on this epoch defining event and present detailed heavy isotope and dust concentration profiles which suggest that in less than 20 years the climate in the north atlantic region turned into a milder and less stormy regime as a consequence of a rapid retreat of the sea ice cover a warming of 7 c in south greenland was completed in about 50 years

the greenland ice sheet project 2 depth age scale methods and results the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 depth age scale is presented based on a multiparameter continuous count approach to a depth of 2800 m using a systematic combination of parameters that have never been used to this extent before the ice at 2800 m is dated at 110 000 years b p with an estimated error ranging from 1 to 10 in the top 2500 m of the core and averaging 20 between 2500 and 2800 m parameters used to date the core include visual stratigraphy oxygen isotopic ratios of the ice electrical conductivity measurements laser light scattering from dust volcanic signals and major ion chemistry gisp2 ages for major climatic events agree with independent ages based on varve chronologies calibrated radiocarbon dates and other techniques within the combined uncertainties good agreement also is obtained with greenland ice core project ice core dates and with the specmap marine timescale after correlation through the 18 o of o 2 although the core is deformed below 2800 m and the continuity of the record is unclear we attempted to date this section of the core on the basis of the laser light scattering of dust in the ice

chronological evidence fails to support claim of an isochronous widespread layer of cosmic impact indicators dated to 12 800 years ago according to the younger dryas impact hypothesis ydih 12 800 calendar years before present north america experienced an extraterrestrial impact that triggered the younger dryas and devastated human populations and biotic communities on this continent and elsewhere this supposed event is reportedly marked by multiple impact indicators but critics have challenged this evidence and considerable controversy now surrounds the ydih proponents of the ydih state that a key test of the hypothesis is whether those indicators are isochronous and securely dated to the younger dryas onset they are not we have examined the age basis of the supposed younger dryas boundary layer at the 29 sites and regions in north and south america europe and the middle east in which proponents report its occurrence several of the sites lack any age control others have radiometric ages that are chronologically irrelevant nearly a dozen have ages inferred by statistically and chronologically flawed age depth interpolations and in several the ages directly on the supposed impact layer are older or younger than 12 800 calendar years ago only 3 of the 29 sites fall within the temporal window of the yd onset as defined by ydih proponents the ydih fails the critical chronological test of an isochronous event at the yd onset which coupled with the many published concerns about the extraterrestrial origin of the purported impact markers renders the ydih unsupported there is no reason or compelling evidence to accept the claim that a cosmic impact occurred 12 800 y ago and caused the younger dryas

comprehensive analysis of nanodiamond evidence relating to the younger dryas impact hypothesis during the end of the last glacial period in the northern hemisphere near 12 9k cal a bp deglacial warming of the bolling allerod interstadial ceased abruptly and the climate returned to glacial conditions for an interval of about 1300 years known as the younger dryas stadial the younger dryas impact hypothesis proposes that the onset of the younger dryas climate reversal pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and disappearance of the clovis paleoindian lithic technology were coeval and caused by continent wide catastrophic effects of impact bolide events in north america while there are no known impact structures dated to the younger dryas onset physical evidence of the impact bolide events is argued to be present in sediments spanning several continents at stratigraphic levels inferred to date to the bolling allerod younger dryas boundary ydb reports of nanometer to submicron sized diamonds in ydb sediments in particular the rare 2h hexagonal polytype of diamond lonsdaleite have been presented as strong evidence for shock processing of crustal materials we review the available data on diamonds in sediments and provide new data we find no evidence for lonsdaleite in ydb sediments and find no evidence of a spike in nanodiamond concentration at the ydb layer to support the impact hypothesis

new evidence from a black mat site in the northern andes supporting a cosmic impact 12 800 years ago abstractprevious work has ascribed a cosmic impact origin to black high temperature carbon encrusted beds 2 3 cm thick associated with the younger dryas readvance of ice at 12 8 ka during the late glacial in the northern andes of venezuela the evidence for this includes carbon spherules aluminosilicate melt rocks melted coatings of glass like amorphous carbon and fe mn on sands and clasts derived from local felsic gneiss and granite these sediments have been subjected to renewed investigation using high resolution scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry and new data show that spherules at site mum7b exhibit unique morphologies and compositions molar oxide weight percentages prove the spherules are not volcanic and show little overlap with cosmic materials spherule microstructures display quench melting and thus could not have formed from slow geological authigenic diagenetic or metamorphic processes instead geochemical values for the venezuelan samples plot withi

evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12 800 y ago airbursts impacts by a fragmented comet or asteroid have been proposed at the younger dryas onset 12 80 0 15 ka based on identification of an assemblage of impact related proxies including microspherules nanodiamonds and iridium distributed across four continents at the younger dryas boundary ydb spherule peaks have been independently confirmed in eight studies but unconfirmed in two others resulting in continued dispute about their occurrence distribution and origin to further address this dispute and better identify ydb spherules we present results from one of the largest spherule investigations ever undertaken regarding spherule geochemistry morphologies origins and processes of formation we investigated 18 sites across north america europe and the middle east performing nearly 700 analyses on spherules using energy dispersive x ray spectroscopy for geochemical analyses and scanning electron microscopy for surface microstructural characterization twelve locations rank among the world s premier end pleistocene archaeological sites where the ydb marks a hiatus in human occupation or major changes in site use our results are consistent with melting of sediments to temperatures 2 200 c by the thermal radiation and air shocks produced by passage of an extraterrestrial object through the atmosphere they are inconsistent with volcanic cosmic anthropogenic lightning or authigenic sources we also produced spherules from wood in the laboratory at 1 730 c indicating that impact related incineration of biomass may have contributed to spherule production at 12 8 ka an estimated 10 million tonnes of spherules were distributed across 50 million square kilometers similar to well known impact strewnfields and consistent with a major cosmic impact event

on the mechanism of north atlantic decadal variability abstract north atlantic decadal climate variability is studied with a coupled atmosphere ocean sea ice model ecbilt after having reached an approximate statistical equilibrium in coupled mode without applying flux corrections a subsequent 1000 yr integration is performed and analyzed compared to the current climate the surface temperatures are 2 c warmer in the tropics to almost 8 c warmer in the polar regions the covariability between the atmosphere and ocean is explored by performing a singular value decomposition svd of boreal winter sst anomalies and 800 hpa geopotential height anomalies the first svd pair shows a red variance spectrum in sst and a white spectrum in 800 hpa height the second mode shows a peak in both spectra at a timescale of about 16 18 yr the geopotential height pattern is the model s equivalent of the north atlantic oscillation nao pattern the sst anomaly pattern is a north south oriented dipole additional experiments have revealed that the decadal oscillation in ec

multiple diamond components in acfer 182 an attempt has been made to isolate the carriers of isotopically heavy 15n enriched nitrogen in the unusual chondrite acfer 182 by preparing an oxidised hf hcl resistant residue analysis of the residue showed that along with much of the carbon almost all of the isotopically heavy nitrogen was removed by the acid treatment suggesting that this component is associated with carbonaceous material several new nitrogen bearing components were revealed most of the nitrogen left in the sample which has a total 15n ca 110 is enriched in 14n and contained in clumps of nanodiamonds similar in appearance grain size 13c 15n and c n ratio to the interstellar nanodiamonds found in primitive carbonaceous ordinary and enstatite chondrites the abundance of nanodiamonds in acfer 182 10 15 ppm can best be explained if they are carried by the clasts of cm like matrix material present in the whole rock sample the remainder of the carbon and nitrogen in the residue was present as three further populations of morphologically distinct diamonds with different isotopic compositions and c n ratios implying different solar system formation origins in addition to diamonds carbon occurs as a hexagonal polymorph of sic unfortunately mixing of carbon combusting from diamond with that from sic precluded determination of a true 13c for the sic but it is conceivable that like interstellar nanodiamonds sic is presolar and occurs in the matrix clasts acfer 182 might also contain silicon nitride si3n4 nierite although none was identified by tem

nanodiamonds and wildfire evidence in the usselo horizon postdate the allerod younger dryas boundary the controversial younger dryas impact hypothesis suggests that at the onset of the younger dryas an extraterrestrial impact over north america caused a global catastrophe the main evidence for this impact after the other markers proved to be neither reproducible nor consistent with an impact is the alleged occurrence of several nanodiamond polymorphs including the proposed presence of lonsdaleite a shock polymorph of diamond we examined the usselo soil horizon at geldrop aalsterhut the netherlands which formed during the allerod early younger dryas and would have captured such impact material our accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates of 14 individual charcoal particles are internally consistent and show that wildfires occurred well after the proposed impact in addition we present evidence for the occurrence of cubic diamond in glass like carbon no lonsdaleite was found the relation of the cubic nanodiamonds to glass like carbon which is produced during wildfires suggests that these nanodiamonds might have formed after rather than at the onset of the younger dryas our analysis thus provides no support for the younger dryas impact hypothesis

the younger dryas impact hypothesis a requiem abstract the younger dryas yd impact hypothesis is a recent theory that suggests that a cometary or meteoritic body or bodies hit and or exploded over north america 12 900 years ago causing the yd climate episode extinction of pleistocene megafauna demise of the clovis archeological culture and a range of other effects since gaining widespread attention in 2007 substantial research has focused on testing the 12 main signatures presented as evidence of a catastrophic extraterrestrial event 12 900 years ago here we present a review of the impact hypothesis including its evolution and current variants and of efforts to test and corroborate the hypothesis the physical evidence interpreted as signatures of an impact event can be separated into two groups the first group consists of evidence that has been largely rejected by the scientific community and is no longer in widespread discussion including particle tracks in archeological chert magnetic nodules in pleistocene bones impact origin of the carolina bays and elevated concentrations of radioactivity iridium and fullerenes enriched in 3 he the second group consists of evidence that has been active in recent research and discussions carbon spheres and elongates magnetic grains and magnetic spherules byproducts of catastrophic wildfire and nanodiamonds over time however these signatures have also seen contrary evidence rather than support recent studies have shown that carbon spheres and elongates do not represent extraterrestrial carbon nor impact induced megafires but are indistinguishable from fungal sclerotia and arthropod fecal material that are a small but common component of many terrestrial deposits magnetic grains and spherules are heterogeneously distributed in sediments but reported measurements of unique peaks in concentrations at the yd onset have yet to be reproduced the magnetic grains are certainly just iron rich detrital grains whereas reported yd magnetic spherules are consistent with the diffuse non catastrophic input of micrometeorite ablation fallout probably augmented by anthropogenic and other terrestrial spherular grains results here also show considerable subjectivity in the reported sampling methods that may explain the purported yd spherule concentration peaks fire is a pervasive earth surface process and reanalyses of the original yd sites and of coeval records show episodic fire on the landscape through the latest pleistocene with no unique fire event at the onset of the yd lastly with yd impact proponents increasingly retreating to nanodiamonds cubic hexagonal lonsdaleite and the proposed n diamond as evidence of impact those data have been called into question the presence of lonsdaleite was reported as proof of impact related shock processes but the evidence presented was inconsistent with lonsdaleite and consistent instead with polycrystalline aggregates of graphene and graphane mixtures that are ubiquitous in carbon forms isolated from sediments ranging from modern to pre yd age important questions remain regarding the origins and distribution of other diamond forms e g cubic nanodiamonds in summary none of the original yd impact signatures have been subsequently corroborated by independent tests of the 12 original lines of evidence seven have so far proven to be non reproducible the remaining signatures instead seem to represent either 1 non catastrophic mechanisms and or 2 terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial or impact related sources in all of these cases sparse but ubiquitous materials seem to have been misreported and misinterpreted as singular peaks at the onset of the yd throughout the arc of this hypothesis recognized and expected impact markers were not found leading to proposed yd impactors and impact processes that were novel self contradictory rapidly changing and sometimes defying the laws of physics the yd impact hypothesis provides a cautionary tale for researchers the scientific community the press and the broader public

impact of localized tropical and extratropical sst anomalies in ensembles of seasonal gcm integrations a series of 120 day ensemble integrations of a general circulation model designed to assess the impact of geographically localized sea surface temperature sst anomalies in both the tropics and extratropics are described these experiments contribute firstly to an appraisal of the relative roles of tropical and extratropical sst anomalies on interannual variability of the large scale circulation in the northern extratropics and secondly to an assessment of the role of quasi stationary diabatic heating anomalies on model systematic error including blocking activity overall it is found that sst anomalies associated with el nino and la nina have a larger and more reproducible impact on the extratropics than the chosen extratropical sst anomalies these extratropical anomalies were localized to the north west pacific and north west atlantic with realistic amplitude however unlike earlier studies a response to the extratropical north pacific sst anomalies has been obtained over the north pacific which is correlated with the sign of the imposed sst anomaly the response to extratropical sst anomalies in the north west atlantic are similar to the results obtained from an earlier study the downstream responses to the extratropical pacific and atlantic sst anomalies are qualitatively similar to one another overall it is concluded that the northern large scale flow is influenced by such extratropical sst anomalies the response to idealized tropical sst anomalies was also studied in particular a localized anomaly over indonesia had a very substantial impact on the hadley circulation on zonal flow and on blocking frequency over the north pacific and europe this response was such as to reduce model systematic error locally in the vicinity of the sst anomaly remotely around the tropics and remotely in the extratropics a similar though weaker impact on euro atlantic blocking was obtained with an idealized caribbean sst anomaly further statistical and dynamical analyses suggested that the extratropical response to the indonesian sst anomaly occurs through the creation of two distinct planetary scale regimes in one of which the formation of blocks is much favoured by increased ridges on the north eastern side of the oceans

shock synthesized hexagonal diamonds in younger dryas boundary sediments the long standing controversy regarding the late pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in north america has been invigorated by a hypothesis implicating a cosmic impact at the llerod younger dryas boundary or ydb 12 900 100 cal bp or 10 900 100 14c years abrupt ecosystem disruption caused by this event may have triggered the megafaunal extinctions along with reductions in other animal populations including humans the hypothesis remains controversial due to absence of shocked minerals tektites and impact craters here we report the presence of shock synthesized hexagonal nanodiamonds lonsdaleite in ydb sediments dating to 12 950 50 cal bp at arlington canyon santa rosa island california lonsdaleite is known on earth only in meteorites and impact craters and its presence strongly supports a cosmic impact event further strengthened by its co occurrence with other nanometer sized diamond polymorphs n diamonds and cubics these shock synthesized diamonds are also associated with proxies indicating major biomass burning charcoal carbon spherules and soot this biomass burning at the younger dryas yd onset is regional in extent based on evidence from adjacent santa barbara basin and coeval with broader continent wide biomass burning biomass burning also coincides with abrupt sediment mass wasting and ecological disruption and the last known occurrence of pygmy mammoths mammuthus exilis on the channel islands correlating with broader animal extinctions throughout north america the only previously known co occurrence of nanodiamonds soot and extinction is the cretaceous tertiary k t impact layer these data are consistent with abrupt ecosystem change and megafaunal extinction possibly triggered by a cosmic impact over north america at 12 900 100 cal bp

diamonds from the popigai impact structure russia diamonds were found in impact melt rocks and breccias at the popigai impact structure in siberia the diamonds preserve the crystallographic habit and twinning of graphites in the preimpact target rocks from which they formed by shock transformation secondary and transmission electron microscopy indicate that the samples are polycrystalline and contain abundant very thin lamellae which could represent stacking faults with local hexagonal symmetry or microtwins microcrystalline units are 1 m infrared spectroscopy indicates the presence of solid co 2 and water in microinclusions in the diamonds co 2 being under a pressure greater than 5 gpa at room temperature trace element and isotopic compositions confirm the derivation from graphite precursors

reply to blaauw et al boslough daulton gill et al and hardiman et al younger dryas impact proxies in lake cuitzeo mexico blaauw et al 1 take issue with our age depth model for the cuitzeo core they state that no offset for our accelerator mass spectrometry ams 14c dates was quantified that our identification of the cieneguillas tephra is doubtful that we used an outdated calibration model and they object to our rejection of six ams dates in the anomalous zone

discovery of a nanodiamond rich layer in the greenland ice sheet we report the discovery in the greenland ice sheet of a discrete layer of free nanodiamonds nds in very high abundances implying most likely either an unprecedented influx of extraterrestrial et material or a cosmic impact event that occurred after the last glacial episode from that layer we extracted n diamonds and hexagonal diamonds lonsdaleite an accepted et impact indicator at abundances of up to about 5 10 6 times background levels in adjacent younger and older ice the nds in the concentrated layer are rounded suggesting they most likely formed during a cosmic impact through some process similar to carbon vapor deposition or high explosive detonation this morphology has not been reported previously in cosmic material but has been observed in terrestrial impact material this is the first highly enriched discrete layer of nds observed in glacial ice anywhere and its presence indicates that ice caps are important archives of et events of varying magnitudes using a preliminary ice chronology based on oxygen isotopes and dust stratigraphy the nd rich layer appears to be coeval with nd abundance peaks reported at numerous north american sites in a sedimentary layer the younger dryas boundary layer ydb dating to 12 9 0 1 ka however more investigation is needed to confirm this association

variability and multiple equilibria of the thermohaline circulation associated with deep water formation abstract in this study the variability of the thermohaline circulation on decadal and centennial time scales that is related to the process of deep water formation is investigated this is done within the context of a simple geostrophic three layer ocean model with a rectangular closed basin when slowly varying the atmospheric forcing the model response shows sudden transitions characterized by local changes in convective activity many different equilibria were found within the thermally driven regime in stommel s sense i e downwelling occurs near the poles next the deep water formation process was analyzed with a one dimensional box model in this box model four different regimes can be identified convective nonconvective periodic and a regime where both convection and no convection are possible with the same mixed boundary conditions these regimes were identified in the circulation of the ocean model a region was traced where convection is possible according to the authors analysis but

the adriatic sea general circulation part ii baroclinic circulation structure abstract in the second part of the paper dedicated to the adriatic sea general circulation the horizontal structure of the hydrographic parameters and dissolved oxygen fields is described on a seasonal timescale maps of temperature and salinity climatological fields reveal the enhanced seasonal variability of the adriatic sea which at the surface is associated with the major dilution effects of river runoff the density and derived dynamic height fields show for the first time the baroclinic geostrophic structure of the general circulation winter is dominated by compensation effects between temperature and salinity fronts along the western coastline the resulting baroclinic circulation is weak and suggests the presence of barotropic current components not accessible by the dataset spring and summer seasons have the smallest spatial scales in the temperature and salinity fields and stronger subbasin scale gyres and current systems which have been classified in a schematic representation of the circu