Nicholas Pinter
In a recent interview with NBC News anti-YDB jihadi Nick Pinter claimed that “the pro-impact literature is, at this point, fringe science being promoted by a single journal.”
This is nonsense — and easily disproven. The critics of the YDB hypothesis have published 10 times in PNAS (see #1 below), whereas the YDB proponents have published only 8 times (see #2 below). Where’s the bias by PNAS, one of the world’s most prestigious journals? There is none.
Also, let’s look at Pinter’s claim that the YDB impact hypothesis is only being argued in a single journal. Besides the 8 papers in PNAS, proponents have published 15 papers in 13 other journals (listed below and in #3). Pinter’s claim is obviously false.
Journals other than PNAS publishing evidence from YDB proponents:
Contemporary Issues in California Archaeology;
Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2);
Geomorphology;
Journal of Advanced Microscopic Research
Journal of Archaeological Science;
Journal of Cosmology;
Journal of Glaciology;
Journal of Geology;
Journal of Siberian Federal University;
Journal of the Geological Society;
Quaternary International;
Quaternary Science Reviews;
Sedimentary Geology (2);
Science.
#1 PNAS con-YDB references:
Haynes (2008) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; black mat.
Buchanan et al. (2009) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; no YD population decline.
Marlon et al. (2009) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; no peak in wildfires.
Surovell et al. (2009) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; no YDB spherule peaks.
Paquay et al. (2009) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; no iridium.
Daulton et al. (2010) Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; no diamonds.
Scott et al. (2010); carbon spherules.
Haynes et al. (2010); spherules found in the YDB.
Tian et al. (2011); diamonds found in the YDB
Van Hoesel et al. (2012); diamonds found “near” the YDB.
#2: PNAS pro-YDB references:
Bunch TE, et al. (2012) Very High-Temperature Impact Melt Products as Evidence for Cosmic Airbursts and Impacts 12,900 years ago. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 109: 11066-11067.
Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:16016–16021.
Israde-Alcántara I, et al. (2012) Evidence from Central Mexico supporting the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Hypothesis. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 13, E738-E747.
Kennett DJ, et al. (2009a) Shock-synthesized hexagonal diamonds in Younger Dryas boundary Sediments, Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 106 (31): 12623-12628.
Kennett DJ, et al. (2009b) Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas boundary sediment layer. Science 323:94.
LeCompte MA, et al. (2012) Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106: doi: 10.1073/pnas.1208603109.
Petaev, MI, Huang S, Jacobsen SB, Zindler A. (2013) Large Pt anomaly in the Greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of Younger Dryas. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA published online before print July 22, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1303924110.
Wittke JH, et al. (2013) Evidence for Deposition of 10 Million Tonnes of Impact Spherules across Four Continents 12,800 years ago. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 110 no. 23 E2088-E2097.
Wu Y, et al. (2013) Origin and provenance of spherules and magnetic grains at the Younger Dryas boundary. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, published online before print September 5, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1304059110.
#3 non-PNAS pro-YDB references:
Anderson DG, Goodyear AC, Kennett J, West A. (2011) Multiple lines of evidence for possible Human population decline/settlement reorganization during the early Younger Dryas. Quaternary International 242 (2011) 570-583.
Fayek M, Anovitz LM, Allard LF, Hull S. (2012) Framboidal iron oxide: chondrite-like material from the black mat, Murray Springs, Arizona. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 319-320: 251-258.
Firestone RB, et al. (2010) Analysis of the Younger Dryas Impact Layer. Journal of Siberian Federal University, Engineering & Technologies 1 30-62.
Firestone RB. (2009) The Case for the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Event: Mammoth, Megafauna, and Clovis Extinction, 12,900 Years Ago. Journal of Cosmology (journalofcosmology.com)
Jones TL and Kennett DJ. (2012) A Land Impacted? The Younger Dryas Boundary Event in California. Contemporary Issues in California Archaeology, edited by Jones TL and Perry JE, 37–48.
Kennett DJ, et al. (2008) Wildfire and abrupt ecosystem disruption on California’s Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød–YoungerDryas boundary (13.0–12.9 ka). Quaternary Science Reviews 27 2528–2543.
Kennett, D.J. et al., (2009) Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas Boundary Sediment Layer. Science 323: 94.
Kurbatov AV, et al. (2010) Discovery of a nanodiamond-rich layer in the Greenland ice sheet. Journal of Glaciology, 56, 749-759.
Mahaney WC, David Krinsley, Kurt Langworthy, Kris Hart, Volli Kalm, Pierre Tricart and Stephane Schwartz. (2011a) Fired glaciofluvial sediment in the northwestern Andes: Biotic aspects of the Black Mat. Sedimentary Geology. 237, (1-2), pp73-83.
Mahaney WC, et al. (2010a) Evidence from the northwestern Venezuelan Andes for extraterrestrial impact: The black mat enigma. Geomorphology, v. 116, iss. 1-2, p. 48-57.
Mahaney WC, et al. (2013) Weathering Rinds as Mirror Images of Palaeosols: Examples from the Western Alps with correlation to Antarctica and Mars. Journal of the Geological Society 2013, v.170; p833-847.
Mahaney WC, Krinsley D, Kalm V (2010b) Evidence for a cosmogenic origin of fired glaciofluvial beds in the northwestern Andes: Correlation with experimentally heated quartz and feldspar. Sedimentary Geology, v. 231, iss. 1-2, p. 31-40.
Mahaney, WC, et al. (2011b) Notes on the black mat sediment, Mucunuque Catchment, northern Mérida Andes, Venezuela.. Journal of Advanced Microscopic Research, vol. 6, no. 3.
Mahaney WC, et al. (2013, July) New Evidence from a Black Mat Site in the Northern Andes Supporting a Cosmic Impact 12,800 Years Ago The Journal of Geology vol. 121, No. 4 (July 2013), pp. 309-325
Overholt AC, Melott AL. (2013) Cosmogenic nuclide enhancement via deposition from long-period comets as a test of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 377, 55-61.
Steele J. (2010) Radiocarbon dates as data: quantitative strategies for estimating colonization front speeds and event densities. Journal of Archaeological Science 37/8, p. 2017-2030.