E.P. Grondine was kind to contact me this morning with a thoughtful “Is everything OK?” query. Emphatically yes, and that is the problem. My business and civic life, as balanced with young family, have been all consuming for me of late. Our company just signed a very, very large contract and I have recently been appointed Vice Chair of the newly formed North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission, charged with the writing an entire set of on-shore exploration and production regulations for our state — from scratch — over the next eighteen months. Throw that in with a griping election season (recall I am a politico), and no particularly interesting news on the catastrophism front, and the wind just got sucked out of my hobby: the Tusk.
But none of that is really an excuse for ignoring a subject of existential importance for two months with nary a word. If we were blogging on “flowers” or “pets” that would be one thing….
What I need to do is pick through the last few papers, find some interesting and under recognized aspects (since no one really reads papers), and give them some play. Hmmm…. I will also take nominations along those lines (or other truly compelling subject matter).
Thanks for your patience.
Here’s one for you George. The full text of this thing is behind a pay wall. But since your livelihood is all about wetlands, this negative shot across the bow of the YDIH is something that deserves the Tusk’s attention
Accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis
Abstract:
“The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis contends that an extraterrestrial object exploded over North America at 12.9 ka, initiating the Younger Dryas cold event, the extinction of many North American megafauna, and the demise of the Clovis archeological culture. Although the exact nature and location of the proposed impact or explosion remain unclear, alleged evidence for the fallout comes from multiple sites across North America and a site in Belgium. At 6 of the 10 original sites (excluding the Carolina Bays), elevated concentrations of various “impact markers” were found in association with black mats that date to the onset of the Younger Dryas. Black mats are common features in paleowetland deposits and typically represent shallow marsh environments. In this study, we investigated black mats ranging in age from approximately 6 to more than 40 ka in the southwestern United States and the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. At 10 of 13 sites, we found elevated concentrations of iridium in bulk and magnetic sediments, magnetic spherules, and/or titanomagnetite grains within or at the base of black mats, regardless of their age or location, suggesting that elevated concentrations of these markers arise from processes common to wetland systems, and not a catastrophic extraterrestrial impact event.
You are intuitive here, Dennis. Pigati was my pick as well. The paper is flawed and I have some understanding of the reasons. Let me bone up a bit and try to get something up.
PS. I think I posted it on Scribd….here it is: http://www.scribd.com/doc/91456697/Wetlands-Spherules-and-Volcanoes-in-Mexico-PNAS-2012-Pigati
George,
How do we know you’re not actually running Tusk from the afterlife?
and
what is the flaw in the above paper? I briefed through it but not the supporting papers and couldn’t find anything glaringly wrong. But I’m not an Earth Science type either, so there’s that.
THarris
because I am actually responding this time. Although there may be Touring Machine concerns.
Anyway, I am working on several posts and fronts. I am particularly interested in the 1000AD tsunami that hit my own coast. Anybody remember that post? That was great stuff!
Pigati too…
Cross post from my afterlife:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/12/2479736/george-howard-no-ethics-problem.html
probably not this tusnami paper (based on psychic prophecies resolved through “remote viewing” meditation….!) Please excuse me if I don’t capitalize “remote viewing”….
http://www.barry.warmkessel.com/Meteorite.html#c
or here is a page with goodies:
http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/movies_impact_index.htm
including this cool movie:
“50m diameter (IRON) impact East of USA”
and this hit west of Ireland
http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/ire-nn.mov
OR
maybe this Canary Island collapse Tsunami paper which, with its “puny” terrestrial cause is only 100 meters peak to peak in the near field from the source:
http://chinacat.coastal.udel.edu/papers/abadie-etal-isope11.pdf
OR
any of these Chesapeake Bay cosmic impact papers:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0037073896000486
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-8123.2005.00110.x/abstract
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/20/9/771.short
OR
“Tsunami deposits in the geological record”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0037073807000188
OR
this book on various precambrian impacts, with some great graphics including the one in the Shuvalov paper on page 326 that shows a 200 meter diameter stony impactor at a mere 15 km/sec making a ~2 km deep water crater in a deep water case….
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mLfsNALR19oC&oi=fnd&pg=PA323&dq=atlantic+bolide+impact+tsunami+simulation&ots=k2KS-oDnnP&sig=4bd1gvH8R4JxsBUGddZV91qm-s8#v=onepage&q&f=false
still, none of these is the one I was looking for.
TH
here is the mother of all (T.M.O.A.) Tsunami reference sites, including my favorite section: “Are You Insured?”
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd7.html
I’m guessing I may not be insured. I am reviewing this issue currently, however, after being forced to by hurricane Sandy….
TH
absolutely the one that needs your review and further exposure to the Tusk community at large……
http://www.ancientcypress.com/source/PDFs/subfossil.pdf
“Rare meteorites created in violent celestial collision”
Olivine and bulk magnetic signature distributed through a bolide can tell much about its formation process, in terms of both possibilities and limitations of that formative environment.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Rare_meteorites_created_in_violent_celestial_collision_999.html
TH
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49887245/ns/technology_and_science-space/#__utma=14933801.746333242.1342802618.1350582947.1353348839.7&__utmb=14933801.5.8.1353348981137&__utmc=14933801&__utmx=-&__utmz=14933801.1342802618.1.1.utmcsr=%28direct%29|utmccn=%28direct%29|utmcmd=%28none%29&__utmv=14933801.|8=Earned%20By=msnbc|cover=1^12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=www.nbcnews.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&__utmk=251256454