Köfels impact event

[[File:Köfels Landslide.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Site of the Köfels landslide, the rubble blocked the ''Ötztaler Ache'', which later formed a small canyon]]
{{pseudosciencenav}}
The '''Köfels landslide''' was a huge mountain rockslide (a {{wpl|Sturzstrom}}) that occurred in the [[Austria]]n Alps about 9800 years ago near the present day village of Köfels. Some of its features mystified geologists for quite some time. One hypothesis was that it had been caused by an [[asteroid]] impact &mdash; a '''Köfels impact event''' &mdash; but more recent research has rejected the idea. This didn't stop a pair of [[British]] [[engineers and woo|engineers]] from publishing a book that claims that a) it was an asteroid impact, b) it inspired a lot of [[myth]]s, and c) it was recorded on an ancient [[Sumeria]]n clay tablet.

==Science==
The reason for the original impact [[hypothesis]] was the presence of fused rock. At the time, the only processes known to be able to do this were either volcanism or meteor impacts. Later research found that it can be also produced by friction and similar fused rock has been found in other large rockslides.

==Pseudoscience==
[[File:British_Museum_Cuneiform_planisphere_K8538.jpg|thumb|left|British Museum tablet K.8538, a.k.a. The Planisphere.]]
In 2008, two British engineers, Alan Bond<ref>Alan Bond is the managing director of Reaction Engines Ltd., a British company developing the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BEdOM2W180 Skylon], an air-breathing, horizontal-take-off/horizontal-landing, single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane (= cheaper and more versatile Space Shuttle). {{see-wp|Alan Bond (engineer)}}</ref> and Mark Hempsell, published a book, ''A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels' Impact Event''. They claim that an ancient Sumerian clay tablet documents an asteroid impact on 29 June 3123 [[BCE]] that was the root of many myths, including the destruction of [[Sodom and Gomorrah]] and the Greek myth of {{wpl|Phaëton|Phaeton}} (the son of the sun god Helios who took his father's fiery sun chariot for a joyride and crashed it).

There are many problems with their claims, but perhaps the most major one is the wrong chronology. The Köfels site has been dated with [[radiocarbon dating]] of wood buried by the landslide to about 9800±100 BP (Before Present), which is about 4000 years earlier than Bond and Hempsell's date. Another problem is the absence of an impact crater in the region. According to the two engineers, the peculiar trajectory of the asteroid explains why there are no signs of impact on the site. The angle of arrival on Earth would have been very narrow (about six degrees), which means that the asteroid, rather than impacting the ground, would have cut the top of a mountain called Gamskogel, about 11 kilometers from Köfels, causing the catastrophic avalanche.

==Bibliography==
*''A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels' Impact Event'', Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell, 2008, ISBN 978-1904623649

==See also==
*[[Immanuel Velikovsky]]

==External links==
*{{see-wp|Umhausen#Landslide}}
*[http://www.physorg.com/news126183668.html Cuneiform clay tablet translated for the first time], 31 March 2008, Physorg.com (being bitches again and re-publishing the press release from the University of Bristol)
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343674,00.html Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah], [[Fox News]].com, 1 April 2008
* https://www.neperos.com/article/s9kr7cad8131ef00
*''[http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-02-04/#feature Fire in the Sky]'', a review of the book by Jeff Medkeff (of the Blue Collar Scientist blog) and Martin Rundkvist (of [http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/ Aardvarchaeology]) in the ''eSkeptic'' newsletter, 4 February 2009
**[http://web.archive.org/web/20090414030317/http://bluecollarscientist.com/2008/04/01/a-sumerian-observation-of-the-kofels-impact-almost-certainly-not/ A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact? Almost Certainly Not…], Jeff Medkeff, 1 April 2008 (a Wayback Machine copy, because the blog's domain was usurped soon after Medkeff's untimely death)
**[http://web.archive.org/web/20090604213958/http://bluecollarscientist.com/2008/04/16/a-response-to-mark-hempsell/ A Response to Mark Hempsell], Jeff Medkeff, 16 April 2008 (Hempsell had left comments on the previous post)
*[http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=303316&partid=1 Tablet K8538] details on the British Museum website
*[http://members.westnet.com.au/gary-david-thompson/page11-9.html Astronomical Artifacts and Portraits: 9: Late Babylonian (Neo-Assyrian) planisphere], a page on the tablet that has more pictures and criticism of Bond and Hempsell's claims
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/04/05/news-to-note-04052008#two ''News to Note'', April 5, 2008], [[Answers in Genesis]]
*<capture>[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=K%C3%B6fels_Impact_Event&oldid=565305 Köfels Impact Event]</capture>, article in [[Conservapedia]] (revision from 21 November 2008, last revision as of writing this page)
*[http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2010-March/062782.html A post on a meteorite mailing list]
*http://info.tuwien.ac.at/geophysik/research/landslides/1997_pr01/structure/koefels.htm

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Austria]]

Categories: Austria