A recent story on ScienceDaily read: Mass Extinction -- Why Did Half of N. America's Large Mammals Disappear 13.8 and 11.4 Thousand Years Ago?
New findings from J. Tyler Faith, GW Ph.D. candidate in the hominid paleobiology doctoral program, and Todd Surovell, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, reveal that a mass extinction occurred in a geological instant.
During the late Pleistocene, which ended around 11,700 years ago, North America lost over 50 percent of its large mammal species..
Whatever happened to cause the extinction did not span hundreds or thousands of years, it was likely less than a decade. It was quick and struck without warning.
What kind of event could cause a mass extinction?
Let's begin back in the 1960s with the Apollo 11 manned landing on the moon. On one of their EVA's (extra-vehicular activities), the astronauts photographed and took samples from some small craters, about 20cm to 1.5 meters across. When they examined the floors of these craters they noticed what looked like glazed donuts. These were actually chunks of moon dirt that were coated by glass.
Discrete particles of lunar soil shown in a magnified view, part of the samples of Moon material returned by Apollo astronauts. The tiny fragments are the products of the pulverization of rocks by billions of years of meteorite and comet impacts, and they have been modified by heat, radiation, and bombardment by atomic and subatomic particles at the lunar surface.
In 1969, an article in Science by T. Gold proposed a theory of how they were made. Glass, as we know, is made from melting sand. It occurs natually near sources of high temperature, such as volcanos and meteor impacts. The lunar glass having been created by something very hot.
The fact that the glaze was confined to small patches, 0.5 to 10mm, suggested to scientists that the surface had been zapped rather than slow-cooked. And the likely source of this zap was our Sun.
Gold propose that the Sun -- our Sun -- does this every 10,000 years or more. He suggested that future research should look for a "trigger" event -- possibly a large comet or asteroid impacting the surface of the Sun.
Dr. Paul LaViolette envisioned a large solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME) that would become magnetically entrapped in the Earth's magnetosphere. The magnetosphere would then hold on to this fireball of radiation like a magnetic thermos bottle, allowing the Moon and Earth to be exposed for a duration of time long enough to really "flash bake" their surfaces.
LaViolette proposed that the entire solar system was full of this cosmic dust at the time of this solar eruption. He was vindicated when polar ice cores showed unusual cosmic dust deposits at srata marking the end of the last ice age. This time period, about 11,950 BCE, approximates the current age of the Moon glass.
So where did all this cosmic dust come from?
Like Earth, our entire solar system has its own atmosphere, called the heliopause. This "bubble" surrounds the Sun and planets as it travels through galactic space. Like our earth's magnetosphere, the movement of the heliopause creates a rounded "head" and a narrowing "tail." Until recently, astronomers believed that our solar system was a region relatively free from cosmic dust. The cosmic dust and frozen material of space were kept outside this protective bubble.
This was confirmed when the IRAS and Ulysses spacecrafts showed infrared images of the solar system, surrounded by whispy clouds of cosmic dust that increase in density just beyond Saturn.
So if the cosmic dust is surrounding the heliopause, what would make it suddenly enter the heliopause and how would this coincide with huge solar flares? LaViolette envisioned something disrupting the heliopause from the outside, impacting it and drawing cosmic dust inside with it and energizing the Sun. The energy of such an impact would be immense. The most logical place to look for such enormous energy was the Milky Way Galaxy.
The smoking gun
Examining the shape of the cosmic dust clouds, the IRAS satellite team reported that the cloud was tilted relative to the solar system's ecliptic -- the narrow plane containing our planets. LaViolette realized that this odd alignment tracked back to the Galactic center. This was quickly verified by NASA's Ulysses spacecraft and New Zealand's AMOR space radar observatory. Whatever caused the last ice age to end, the Sun to flare up and caused the glass to form on the Moon, came from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Astronomers have known about intense radiation from space since the 1970s. They believed to originate from stars in the Milky Way. Assuming this energy originated locally, astronomers concluded this type of gamma ray burst was insignificant and harmless. Then, in December 1997, they had the technology and good luck to catch a strong gamma ray burst and track it. The source was not inside the Milky Way Galaxy. It was from a distant galaxy billions of light years away.
A review of other bursts showed that their assumptions had been wrong. All of the gamma ray bursts they were observing were from other galaxies far, far away. The amount of energy coming from objects so distant was a real shock. No one had ever imagined such powerful bursts could be generated by galactic centers.
A burst of the same intensity as the 1997 event, originating from inside the Milky Way, would deliver 100,000 time the lethal dose of radiation, killing every life form that was exposed. Could that really happen to us?
This question was answered on August 27th, 1998 when an unusual 5 minute gamma ray pulse was located just 20,000 light years away in the constellation of Aquila. This may sound like a huge distance, but to astronomers this is just "next door." The Milky Way Galaxy, for example, is just 100,000 light years from end to end.
The 1998 event was close enough and strong enough to ionize Earth's upper atmosphere, damage a couple of spacecraft and disrupt global communication.
Not in my galaxy!
LaViolette concludes that there are cyclical and frequent explosions from the Galaxy's core. These waves of radiation advance outward to the edges of the Galaxy, impacting everything and causing stars to erupt in their path. He believes this is what has happened many times to our own solar system -- the most recent superwave of radiation being 13,950 years ago (approximately 11.950 BCE). He envisions the shock wave or 'superwave' dragging cosmic dust along with it as it enters the heliopause and energizes our Sun.
Extremely high energy -- the type that would have caused the Moon glass and zapped the Earth -- creates an elaborate discharge. Physicists call it a z-pinch formation.
We are all familiar with the sparks that flash brightly when we discharge electrical current. Lightening is an extreme example of this.
Photo: Rare Sprite. An exotic form of lighting photographed during a thunderstorm over Nebraska on August 12, 2012.
Credits: Jason Ahrns of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
There is ample evidence to support the theory from hundreds of petroglyph sites around the globe where this z-pinch / plasma event was observed and recorded in ancient carvings.
A system of phonetic sound symbols (an alphabet) has been associated with these older petroglyphs and reasonably successful translations, using an archaic form of proto-Canaanite, describe the need to take shelter, a "painful" vertical light and "poison" from the sky.
All point to an intimate relationship between extreme solar activity and gama radiation from the Milky Way Galaxy's center.
Above article is an extract from: Oldest petroglyph discovery suggest Clovis culture witnessed cosmic event - viewzone special thank to Dan Eden.
Whatever happened to cause the extinction did not span hundreds or thousands of years, it was likely less than a decade. It was quick and struck without warning.
What kind of event could cause a mass extinction?
Let's begin back in the 1960s with the Apollo 11 manned landing on the moon. On one of their EVA's (extra-vehicular activities), the astronauts photographed and took samples from some small craters, about 20cm to 1.5 meters across. When they examined the floors of these craters they noticed what looked like glazed donuts. These were actually chunks of moon dirt that were coated by glass.
In 1969, an article in Science by T. Gold proposed a theory of how they were made. Glass, as we know, is made from melting sand. It occurs natually near sources of high temperature, such as volcanos and meteor impacts. The lunar glass having been created by something very hot.
The fact that the glaze was confined to small patches, 0.5 to 10mm, suggested to scientists that the surface had been zapped rather than slow-cooked. And the likely source of this zap was our Sun.
Gold propose that the Sun -- our Sun -- does this every 10,000 years or more. He suggested that future research should look for a "trigger" event -- possibly a large comet or asteroid impacting the surface of the Sun.
Dr. Paul LaViolette envisioned a large solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME) that would become magnetically entrapped in the Earth's magnetosphere. The magnetosphere would then hold on to this fireball of radiation like a magnetic thermos bottle, allowing the Moon and Earth to be exposed for a duration of time long enough to really "flash bake" their surfaces.
So where did all this cosmic dust come from?
Like Earth, our entire solar system has its own atmosphere, called the heliopause. This "bubble" surrounds the Sun and planets as it travels through galactic space. Like our earth's magnetosphere, the movement of the heliopause creates a rounded "head" and a narrowing "tail." Until recently, astronomers believed that our solar system was a region relatively free from cosmic dust. The cosmic dust and frozen material of space were kept outside this protective bubble.
This was confirmed when the IRAS and Ulysses spacecrafts showed infrared images of the solar system, surrounded by whispy clouds of cosmic dust that increase in density just beyond Saturn.
So if the cosmic dust is surrounding the heliopause, what would make it suddenly enter the heliopause and how would this coincide with huge solar flares? LaViolette envisioned something disrupting the heliopause from the outside, impacting it and drawing cosmic dust inside with it and energizing the Sun. The energy of such an impact would be immense. The most logical place to look for such enormous energy was the Milky Way Galaxy.
The smoking gun
Examining the shape of the cosmic dust clouds, the IRAS satellite team reported that the cloud was tilted relative to the solar system's ecliptic -- the narrow plane containing our planets. LaViolette realized that this odd alignment tracked back to the Galactic center. This was quickly verified by NASA's Ulysses spacecraft and New Zealand's AMOR space radar observatory. Whatever caused the last ice age to end, the Sun to flare up and caused the glass to form on the Moon, came from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Astronomers have known about intense radiation from space since the 1970s. They believed to originate from stars in the Milky Way. Assuming this energy originated locally, astronomers concluded this type of gamma ray burst was insignificant and harmless. Then, in December 1997, they had the technology and good luck to catch a strong gamma ray burst and track it. The source was not inside the Milky Way Galaxy. It was from a distant galaxy billions of light years away.
A review of other bursts showed that their assumptions had been wrong. All of the gamma ray bursts they were observing were from other galaxies far, far away. The amount of energy coming from objects so distant was a real shock. No one had ever imagined such powerful bursts could be generated by galactic centers.
A burst of the same intensity as the 1997 event, originating from inside the Milky Way, would deliver 100,000 time the lethal dose of radiation, killing every life form that was exposed. Could that really happen to us?
The 1998 event was close enough and strong enough to ionize Earth's upper atmosphere, damage a couple of spacecraft and disrupt global communication.
Not in my galaxy!
LaViolette concludes that there are cyclical and frequent explosions from the Galaxy's core. These waves of radiation advance outward to the edges of the Galaxy, impacting everything and causing stars to erupt in their path. He believes this is what has happened many times to our own solar system -- the most recent superwave of radiation being 13,950 years ago (approximately 11.950 BCE). He envisions the shock wave or 'superwave' dragging cosmic dust along with it as it enters the heliopause and energizes our Sun.
Extremely high energy -- the type that would have caused the Moon glass and zapped the Earth -- creates an elaborate discharge. Physicists call it a z-pinch formation.
Photo: Rare Sprite. An exotic form of lighting photographed during a thunderstorm over Nebraska on August 12, 2012.
Credits: Jason Ahrns of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
There is ample evidence to support the theory from hundreds of petroglyph sites around the globe where this z-pinch / plasma event was observed and recorded in ancient carvings.
Image: Petroglyphs. These patterns are found world-wide.
A system of phonetic sound symbols (an alphabet) has been associated with these older petroglyphs and reasonably successful translations, using an archaic form of proto-Canaanite, describe the need to take shelter, a "painful" vertical light and "poison" from the sky.
All point to an intimate relationship between extreme solar activity and gama radiation from the Milky Way Galaxy's center.
Above article is an extract from: Oldest petroglyph discovery suggest Clovis culture witnessed cosmic event - viewzone special thank to Dan Eden.