Comets destroy the 'monster' ice age

The blocks from the space that hit glaciers in eastern Canada about 12,900 years ago may have completely destroyed the giant mammoth mammoth, and the continent's first human species is called the Clovis, according to a new study.

New evidence in research comes from very small sized diamonds that have just been discovered. The researchers say this is the clearest clue to date for debates about the widespread disappearance of animals in this area at the end of the Pleistocene. Scientists have long argued about what caused this horrific extinction event, causing half of North America's large ice-age animals and Clovis to completely disappear. (The Clovis are a group of Stone Age people who came to live on this continent).

To this day, two main explanations - human hunting abuse and climate change - are not enough to cause such a major event. But in addition to the comet collision, all three factors would be the logical explanation for such a large-scale extinction, Allen West of GeoScience Consulting in Arizona said.

West said: 'There is no way to know the role of each of these factors in this disaster. However, we are quite sure that all three factors have a certain impact - collisions with comets, climate change and people '.

The ability to collide with comets is not a new idea. Scientists have reported finding evidence of comets such as nano diamonds, a rare form of glass like glass, and Iridium element on Earth. But this is the first time scientists have discovered six-sided diamonds . These lonsdaleite nano diamonds are only found in meteorites or impacted mouths.

'Lonsdaleite forms under very high temperatures and pressures, consistent with a cosmic collision,' said Douglas Kennett, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon. 'These diamonds are found only in meteorites and impact craters on Earth, and are a clear indication of a cosmic collision'.

Diamond discovery

The team discovered this tiny diamond 13 feet deep in the sediment at Arlington Canyon, located on the island of Santa Rosa.The island was once connected to three other islands off Southern California in an area called Santarosae.

The researchers also found six-sided diamonds in several other locations in North America and Europe.

Mammoths are often mistaken for mastodons. Both of these animals belong to Proboscidea, but mammoths are larger and have tusks rather than straight. (Photo: Stockxpert)

From the evidence of diamonds and other materials, the researchers gave a new explanation of the event: One or several comet-like objects about 1 mile (2 km) wide have crashed into Canada. . These comets may have crashed at an oblique angle, blowing away a large amount of ice - this explains why scientists have not found a collision.

The collision caused a large-scale wildfire, with the help of soot found in the area in Santa Rosa and elsewhere in North America.Such large-scale forest fires destroyed large populations of animals and humans.

The effect of comets may also be responsible for the extinction of the dwarf mammoth from the Northern Archipelago, the researchers said.

The climate is cold

The long-term impact may then have killed most survivors.

West said: 'Such an explosion of a comet will emit a lot of water vapor (comets are formed from ice), so it will create a lot of cloud covering the entire northern hemisphere. This will make the weather very cold. '

In addition, wildfires also release into the atmosphere dust, soot, steam, and nitric oxide. The result will be a rapid cooling of the climate

In fact, West and colleagues argue that the collision also created a period of cold weather called Younger Dryas.

West told LiveScience: 'It is like you live in Miami and suddenly within 1 year the climate changes to Montreal, Canada. This means that palm trees cannot grow. "

Plants that adapt to warmer climates die slowly, causing the food source of giant animals to run out

West and his colleagues are still trying to understand exactly the formation of six-sided nano diamonds and other diamonds found in 12,900-year-old sediments.

The researchers peaked that high-pressure and high-pressure collisions converted graphite on Earth into a hexagonal diamond. In addition, an amount of ice carbon dioxide inside the comet may have been transformed into nano diamonds.

The National Science Foundation is the main source of funding for research. The study is published in detail in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences magazine this week.