Abstract
Sediment sequences spanning the 12,800-year-old lower Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) were investigated at three widely separated sites in eastern North America (Parsons Island, Maryland, a Newtonville sandpit in southern New Jersey, and Flamingo Bay, South Carolina). All sequences examined exhibit peak abundances in platinum (Pt), microspherules, and meltglass representing the YDB cosmic impact layer resulting from the airbursts/impacts of a fragmented comet ∼12,800 years ago. The evidence is consistent with the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) recorded at ∼50 other sites across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Greenland ice sheet. These sequences were also examined for shock-fractured quartz, based on a recent study suggesting that low-shock metamorphism may result from low-altitude bolide airbursts similar to that observed during near-surface atomic detonations. Now, for the first time in a suite of well-separated sites in North America, we report in the YDB the presence of quartz grains exhibiting shock fractures containing amorphous silica. We also find in the YDB high-temperature melted chromferide, zircon, quartz, titanomagnetite, ulvöspinel, magnetite, native iron, and PGEs with equilibrium melting points (∼1,250° to 3,053°C) that rule out anthropogenic origins for YDB microspherules. The collective evidence meets the criteria for classification as an “impact spherule datum.”
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e20240003 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Airbursts and Cratering Impacts |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 May 2024 |
Keywords
- Younger Dryas
- shock-fractured quartz
- microspherules
- platinum
- meltglass
- Clovis
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Evidence of a 12,800-year-old Shallow Airburst Depression in Louisiana with Large Deposits of Shocked Quartz and Melted Materials
Fitzenreiter, R., Ernston, K., Kletetschka, G., LeCompte, M. A., Moore, C. R., Kennett, J. P., Bizimis, M., Hofmann, F., Takac, M., Adedeji, V., Witwer, T., Chouinard, J. E., Paulo Perez, J., Young, M. D., Eaton, T. M., Valente, M. J., Lanning Jr., D. B., Rapoport, Y., Ellison, K. & Reyes, A. & 5 others, , 4 Jun 2025, In: Airbursts and Cratering Impacts. 3, 1, 47 p., e20250004.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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