Nanodiamonds and wildfire evidence in the Usselo horizon postdate the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary

Hoesel, Annelies van; Hoek, Wim Z.; Braadbaart, Freek; Plicht, Johannes van der; Pennock, Gill; Drury, M. R.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1120950109

Cited by 42 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…Daulton (2012) also questioned the identification of lonsdaleite (hexagonal diamond), suggesting that some particles exhibited in Kennett et al (2009b) appear to be graphene-graphane aggregates. Van Hoesel et al (2012), Madden et al (2012), andBement et al (2014) also reported finding graphenegraphane clusters with diffraction patterns similar to those of lonsdaleite. Boslough et al (2012) suggested that some of the reported lonsdaleite from Lake Cuitzeo might instead be other minerals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Although the extraction process remains difficult, exacting, and laborintensive, we have successfully extracted NDs from hundreds of samples in or adjacent to the YDB layer on three continents and in the Greenland Ice Sheet, along with samples from the K-Pg impact, Sudbury Crater, and the Tunguska airburst. Six independent groups have successfully used this protocol or a version of it (Baker et al 2008;Demitroff et al 2009;Redmond and Tankersley 2011;Tian et al 2011;van Hoesel et al 2012;Bement et al 2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In summary, abundant NDs within or near the YDB layer have been reported by four independent groups (Redmond and Tankersley 2011;Tian et al 2011;van Hoesel et al 2012;Bement et al 2014). In addition, NDs have been reported independently in three conference presentations (at Indian Creek, MT, by Baker et al 2008; at Newtonville, NJ, by Demitroff et al 2009;and at Bull Creek, OK, by Madden et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The NDs were not extracted from carbon spherules; instead, the spherules were crushed to fine fragments and placed on a TEM grid, as described in detail in appendix A. Tian et al (2011) and van Hoesel et al (2012) reported YDB NDs in flakes of amorphous carbon or glass-like carbon, and our general protocol for carbon spherules also applies to NDs within these other forms of carbon. (Kennett et al 2009a(Kennett et al , 2009bKurbatov et al 2010) was conducted on copper grids, which were discontinued because of the similarity between the spacings of crystallographic planes (d-spacings) of copper and some NDs (Daulton et al 2010).…”

Section: Nds From Carbon Spherules and Amorphousmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The K-Pg NDs were reported to range in size from 1 nm to 30 mm, whereas YDB NDs are smaller, spanning a narrower range of ≈1 to ≈2.9 mm, perhaps because that older impact was larger and more energetic than the YDB event. Van Hoesel et al (2012) observed cubic NDs within particles of glass-like carbon at the GeldropAalsterhut site in the Netherlands. The NDs were found in a few-centimeter-thick, charcoal-rich interval at the upper boundary of the Usselo layer, the top of which is widely accepted as representing the onset of the YD cooling episode (Van Geel et al 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP

Kinzie¹,

Hee

Stich

et al. 2014

The Journal of Geology

170

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. A B S T R A C TA major cosmic-impact event has been proposed at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling episode at ≈12,800 ‫ע‬ 150 years before present, forming the YD Boundary (YDB) layer, distributed over 150 million km 2 on four continents. In 24 dated stratigraphic sections in 10 countries of the Northern Hemisphere, the YDB layer contains a clearly defined abundance peak in nanodiamonds (NDs), a major cosmic-impact proxy. Observed ND polytypes include cubic diamonds, lonsdaleite-like crystals, and diamond-like carbon nanoparticles, called n-diamond and i-carbon. The ND abundances in bulk YDB sediments ranged up to ≈500 ppb (mean: 200 ppb) and that in carbon spherules up to ≈3700 ppb (mean: ≈750 ppb); 138 of 205 sediment samples (67%) contained no detectable NDs. Isotopic evidence indicates that YDB NDs were produced from terrestrial carbon, as with other impact diamonds, and were not derived from the impactor itself. The YDB layer is also marked by abundance peaks in other impact-related proxies, including cosmic-impact spherules, carbon spherules (some containing NDs), iridium, osmium, platinum, charcoal, aciniform carbon (soot), and high-temperature melt-glass. This contribution reviews the debate about the presence, abundance, and origin of the concentration peak in YDB NDs. We describe an updated protocol for the extraction and concentration of NDs from sediment, carbon spherules, and ice, and we describe the basis for identification and classification of YDB ND polytypes, using nine analytical approaches. The large body of evidence now obtained about YDB NDs is strongly consistent with an origin by cosmic impact at ≈12,800 cal BP and is inconsistent with formation of YDB NDs by natural terrestrial processes, including wildfires, anthropogenesis, and/or influx of cosmic dust.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Nds From Carbon Spherules and Amorphousmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP

Kinzie¹,

Hee

Stich

et al. 2014

The Journal of Geology

170

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The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: a cosmic catastrophe

Holliday

Surovell

Meltzer

et al. 2014

J Quaternary Science

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In this paper we review the evidence for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH), which proposes that at ∼12.9k cal a BP North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East were subjected to some sort of extraterrestrial event. This purported event is proposed as a catastrophic process responsible for: terminal Pleistocene environmental changes (onset of YD cooling, continent‐scale wildfires); extinction of late Pleistocene mammals; and demise of the Clovis ‘culture’ in North America, the earliest well‐documented, continent‐scale settlement of the region. The basic physics in the YDIH is not in accord with the physics of impacts nor the basic laws of physics. No YD boundary (YDB) crater, craters or other direct indicators of an impact are known. Age control is weak to non‐existent at 26 of the 29 localities claimed to have evidence for the YDIH. Attempts to reproduce the results of physical and geochemical analyses used to support the YDIH have failed or show that many indicators are not unique to an impact nor to ∼12.9k cal a BP. The depositional environments of purported indicators at most sites tend to concentrate particulate matter and probably created many ‘YDB zones’. Geomorphic, stratigraphic and fire records show no evidence of any sort of catastrophic changes in the environment at or immediately following the YDB. Late Pleistocene extinctions varied in time and across space. Archeological data provide no indication of population decline, demographic collapse or major adaptive shifts at or just after ∼12.9 ka. The data and the hypotheses generated by YDIH proponents are contradictory, inconsistent and incoherent.

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Comprehensive analysis of nanodiamond evidence relating to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

Daulton

Amari

Scott

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

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During the end of the last glacial period in the Northern Hemisphere near 12.9k cal a BP, deglacial warming of the Bølling–Ållerod interstadial ceased abruptly and the climate returned to glacial conditions for an interval of about 1300 years known as the Younger Dryas stadial. The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis proposes that the onset of the Younger Dryas climate reversal, Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and disappearance of the Clovis paleoindian lithic technology were coeval and caused by continent‐wide catastrophic effects of impact/bolide events in North America. While there are no known impact structures dated to the Younger Dryas onset, physical evidence of the impact/bolide events is argued to be present in sediments spanning several continents at stratigraphic levels inferred to date to the Bølling‐Ållerod/Younger Dryas boundary (YDB). Reports of nanometer to submicron‐sized diamonds in YDB sediments, in particular the rare 2H hexagonal polytype of diamond, lonsdaleite, have been presented as strong evidence for shock processing of crustal materials. We review the available data on diamonds in sediments and provide new data. We find no evidence for lonsdaleite in YDB sediments and find no evidence of a spike in nanodiamond concentration at the YDB layer to support the impact hypothesis.

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Nanodiamonds and wildfire evidence in the Usselo horizon postdate the Allerød-Younger Dryas boundary

Cited by 42 publications

References 56 publications

Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP

Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: a cosmic catastrophe

Comprehensive analysis of nanodiamond evidence relating to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

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