SGER: Investigations of a Likely Extraterrestrial Impact at 12.9 ka: Possible Cause of Younger Dryas Cooling, North American Mammal Mass Extinction and Demise of Clovis People

该奖项由探索研究小额赠款(SGER)计划赞助，用于资助研究，以检验一种新的假设，即年轻的仙女木气候冷却是由彗星撞击劳伦蒂德冰盖或附近引发的。这种影响可能导致北大西洋和北冰洋的不稳定、融化和大规模洪水，进而影响海洋环流和气候。这项研究是基于越来越多的物理证据，基于对北美广泛分布的一个离散的富碳黑色沉积层的分析，得出了12,900年前的一次撞击。该沉积层含有富含地外稀有气体的铱、宇宙球体、碳球体和富勒烯。据报道，在被称为卡罗莱纳湾的凹陷地貌地貌的沉积边缘，高温下形成了铱、富勒烯、宇宙球体和类玻璃碳。这些证据可能有助于评估海湾是否起源于撞击。研究人员将对几个地理位置的黑色层进行探索、化学分析和年代测定。除了实地考察，研究人员还将检查哈德逊湾地区现有的海洋岩心，因为该地区是疑似撞击事件的主要地点。这项研究可能会对更广泛的科学界产生广泛影响，并通过为古老而棘手的科学问题提供新的视角，催化对美洲气候、物种灭绝、景观发展以及人类和文化进化等问题的新思考。

This award, under the auspices of the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program, funds research to test a new hypothesis that Younger Dryas climatic cooling was triggered by a comet impact on or near the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This impact may have caused destabilization, melting, and massive flooding to the northern Atlantic and Arctic oceans that in turn affected ocean circulation and climate. The research is founded on growing physical evidence for an impact at 12,900 years ago based on analyses from a discrete carbon-rich black colored sedimentary layer that is widely distributed over North America. This sedimentary layer contains iridium, cosmic spherules, carbon spherules, and fullerenes enriched in extraterrestrial noble gas concentrations. Iridium, fullerenes, cosmic spherules and glass-like carbon formed under high temperatures are being reported from the sediment rims of depressed geomorphic features called Carolina Bays. This evidence may help evaluate whether the Bays originated in an impact.The researchers will explore, chemically analyze, and date the black layer at several geographic locations. In addition to field exploration, the researchers will examine existing marine cores from the Hudson Bay region since the region is the primary location for the suspected impact event.The research could have broad impact on the wider science community and catalyze new thinking in issues surrounding climate, mass extinctions, landscape development, and human and cultural evolution in the Americas by offering a new perspective on old and knotty scientific problems.