The
Holocene Impact Working Group is a group of scientists from
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the USA who hypothesize that meteorite impacts on Earth are more common than previously supposed.
The group posits one large impact (equivalent to a 10-megaton bomb) every 1,000 years. This estimate is based on evidence of five to ten large impact events in the last 10,000 years. Satellite observations suggest the presence of many recent impact craters and landforms such as
chevronsA chevron is a wedge-shaped sediment deposit observed on coastlines around the world. Such formations are generally hypothesised to be created from erosion, glaciers, and other natural phenomena, but may sometimes curiously include tiny fossils from the ocean....
which are thought to have been caused by megatsunamis.
The
Holocene Impact Working Group is a group of scientists from
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the USA who hypothesize that meteorite impacts on Earth are more common than previously supposed.
The group posits one large impact (equivalent to a 10-megaton bomb) every 1,000 years. This estimate is based on evidence of five to ten large impact events in the last 10,000 years. Satellite observations suggest the presence of many recent impact craters and landforms such as
chevronsA chevron is a wedge-shaped sediment deposit observed on coastlines around the world. Such formations are generally hypothesised to be created from erosion, glaciers, and other natural phenomena, but may sometimes curiously include tiny fossils from the ocean....
which are thought to have been caused by megatsunamis. The chevrons often point in the direction of specific impact craters, the supposition being that the chevrons were deposited by tsunamis originating from the impacts which formed those craters.
A prime example the group cites is the
impact eventAn impact event is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the Earth or another planet. Impact events have been a plot and background element in science fiction since knowledge of real impacts became established in the scientific mainstream.-Sizes and...
named
Burckle craterBurckle Crater is an undersea crater likely to have been formed by a very large scale and relatively recent comet or meteorite impact event. It is estimated to be about 30 km in diameter , hence about 25 times larger than Meteor Crater.It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of...
located off the coasts of Australia and Madagascar. This seminal event is both recent and relatively large in the earths geologic time scale. As one of the cited events, the group indicates much more frequent impact events contrary to other research group frequency analysis results. If such a frequency proves out, then large impacts may show that efforts of the
B612 FoundationThe B612 Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. Their immediate goal is to "significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015"....
become apparently critical considering known history of
Tunguska eventThe Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m...
and others less clearly determined sizable enough to damage
civilizationA civilization is a complex society or culture group characterized by dependence upon agriculture, long-distance trade, state form of government, occupational specialization, population, and class stratification.-Definition:...
.
The group states that their hypothesis is likely to be controversial: "I wouldn't expect 99.9 per cent of (the scientific community) to agree with us" Their work is controversial because it contradicts much of what is understood about impacts and tsunamis.
Group Members:
- Associate Professor Ted Bryant, geomorphologist, Wollongong University, Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
- Dallas Abbott
Dallas Abbott is a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is part of the Holocene Impact Working Group. The primary focus of her present research is on submarine impact craters and their contribution to climate change and megatsunamis...
, research scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory- History :The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a 157-acre campus in Palisades, N.Y., 18 miles north of Manhattan on the Hudson River. It was established in 1949 as the Lamont Geological Observatory on the weekend estate of Thomas W. and...
, New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
- Slava Gusiakov, Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory, Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
- Marie-Agnès Courty
Marie-Agnès Courty is a French geologist of the CNRS who works at the European Centre for Prehistoric Research, in Tautavel ....
, soil scientist, European Center for Prehistoric Research, TautavelTautavel is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.Home of CERP - The European Centre for Prehistoric Research.Nearby is the 'Caune de l'Arago' a cave in which some of the oldest human remains in Europe have been found....
, FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
- Dee Breger, director of microscopy, Drexel University
Drexel University is a private coeducational university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist.-History:...
, Philadelphia
- Bruce Masse, environmental archaeologist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
, New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
See also
- B612 Foundation
The B612 Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. Their immediate goal is to "significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015"....
- Burckle crater
Burckle Crater is an undersea crater likely to have been formed by a very large scale and relatively recent comet or meteorite impact event. It is estimated to be about 30 km in diameter , hence about 25 times larger than Meteor Crater.It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of...
- Impact event
An impact event is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the Earth or another planet. Impact events have been a plot and background element in science fiction since knowledge of real impacts became established in the scientific mainstream.-Sizes and...
- Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began approximately 11 700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely...
- Tunguska event
The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m...
External links