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

该奖项是在探索性研究小额赠款（SGER）计划的赞助下，资助研究以测试一个新的假设，即新仙女木气候冷却是由彗星撞击或靠近劳伦泰德冰盖引发的。 这一影响可能导致了北方大西洋和北冰洋的不稳定、融化和大规模洪水，进而影响了海洋环流和气候。这项研究是建立在越来越多的物理证据的基础上的，这些证据表明，12,900年前的撞击是基于对北美广泛分布的一个离散的富含碳的黑色沉积层的分析。 这一沉积层含有铱、宇宙球粒、碳球粒和富含地外稀有气体浓度的富勒烯。铱、富勒烯、宇宙球粒和玻璃状碳在高温下形成，据报道，它们来自被称为卡罗莱纳湾的凹陷地貌特征的沉积物边缘。 这些证据可能有助于评估海湾是否起源于撞击。研究人员将在几个地理位置探索，化学分析和确定黑色层的日期。除了实地考察外，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。这项研究可能对更广泛的科学界产生广泛影响，并促进围绕气候，质量控制，景观发展，以及美洲的人类和文化进化，为古老而棘手的科学问题提供了新的视角。

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.