Asteroid obliterated early human civilisations in catastrophic collision with Earth 13,000 years ago, scientists claim
AN APOCALYPTIC asteroid brought hellish death and destruction upon primitive humans in America 13,000 years ago.
The explosive impact in Greenland reportedly threw up so much dust and soot that it blotted out the Sun, scientists claim.
This caused a worldwide catastrophe that wiped out wildlife on several continents and may have triggered the sudden disappearance of an early civilisation in North America.
Known as the Clovis people, the prehistoric group mysteriously vanished without a trace around 13,000 years ago.
Now researchers in South Africa say a giant asteroid was responsible.
They suggest a space rock hit Greenland several millennia ago at a spot where a 19-mile-wide crater was found by scientists in November 2018.
The scientists based their hypothesis on a deposit of platinum found at a site in Wonderkrater, South Africa.
That hunk of metal lines up with platinum deposits found at 28 other spots across the globe, suggesting a great deal of platinum-rich dust was coughed up into the air around 12,800 years ago.
Platinum is a rare metal on Earth, but is found in large quantities in meteorites. The number of platinum-rich deposits suggests a huge meteorite impact with Earth around that time.
According to the new study, the collision may have caused the Younger Dryas, a well-documented period in which Earth's temperatures plummeted from around 12,800 BC to 11,700 BC.
At about this time a number of animals became extinct. These included mammoths in Europe, large bison in North America, and giant sloths in South America.
The cause of this cooling event has been debated a great deal, but the new study controversially claims to have solved the mystery.
"Our finding at least partially supports the highly controversial Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis," scientist Professor Francis Thackera said.
"We seriously need to explore the view that an asteroid impact somewhere on earth may have caused climate change on a global scale.
"It could have contributed to some extent to the process of extinctions of large animals at the end of the Pleistocene, after the last ice age."
After the alleged impact, there was "a dramatic termination of the stone tool technology of Clovis people" in North America.
Similar abrupt disappearances were seen around this time in Africa, according to the archaeological record.
Scientists have detected an "almost simultaneous termination of the Robberg stone artefact industry"; in South Africa, researchers said.
"Without necessarily arguing for a single causal factor on a global scale, we cautiously hint at the possibility that these technological changes, in North America and on the African subcontinent at about the same time, might have been associated indirectly with an asteroid impact with major global consequences," Professor Thackeray added.
"We cannot be certain, but a cosmic impact could have affected humans as a result of local changes in environment and the availability of food resources, associated with sudden climate change."
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
The research is likely to cause controversy.
Most scientists think Younger Dryas was triggered by changes in Earth's ocean circulation systems.
There's no proof either way, so the cause of the catastrophic event remains a mystery for now.
The research was published in the journal .
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In other space news, an asteroid larger than a double-decker bus soared closer to Earth than the Moon this week.
Scientists recently discovered a "Super-Earth" 31 light-years away that humans could one day colonise.
And, distant planets may host even more life than we have here on Earth, according to one shock study.
What do you think killed off the Clovis people? Let us know in the comments...
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