Including Original "Paul H. Letters" Copyright © 1996-2024 Paul V. Heinrich / website © 1996-2024 Dirk Ross - All rights reserved.



Tuesday 31 October 2017

New Late-Quaternary Records from Two Carolina Bays in North Carolina 31OCT2017

 New Late-Quaternary Records from Two Carolina Bays in North Carolina

There is an interesting new paper in Quaternary Science Reviews. It is:

Spencer, J., Jones, K.B., Gamble, D.W., Benedetti, M.M., Taylor, A.K.
and Lane, C.S., 2017. Late-Quaternary records of vegetation and fire in
southeastern North Carolina from Jones Lake and Singletary Lake.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 174, pp. 33-53.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117303141

In part the abstract reads;

"We conducted fossil pollen, charcoal, and geochemical analyses of
sediment cores from Jones Lake and Singletary Lake spanning the
last ∼50,000 cal yr BP to examine the linkages between climate,
vegetation, and fire activity on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and
particularly emphasize changes since the Last Glacial Maximum."

There are two interesting aspects of these cores.

1. Nothing special occurs at the beginning of the Younger Dryas
in terms of either changes in lithology, vegetation, or charcoal
influx.

2. The sedimentary and palynological records in both bays extend
past the beginning of the Younger Dryas at least to circa 50,000
years ago.

Thus, contrary to the model of Antonio Zamora, both of these
Carolina Bays are significantly older then beginning of the
Younger Dryas. This raises some obvious problems with his
ideas. In addition, there is complete lack of any abrupt changes
in sedimentation or flora at the beginning of the Younger Dryas
that a person would expect to accompany a truly catastrophic
extraterrestrial event capable of causing a mass extinction.

Just some thoughts.

Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Sources of Tsunamis From Krakatoa to Monterey Bay, Including Extraterrestrial Impacts 24OCT2017

 Sources of Tsunamis From Krakatoa to Monterey Bay, Including Extraterrestrial Impacts

Below is a very interesting talk about tsunamis
and how they are created. One quite interesting
point that came up during the lecture and questions
is that asteroid and meteorite impacts are quite
ineffective at creating tsunamis and the tsunamis
threat from them has been greatly overestimated.
Also, as shown in popular films, they are quite
overexaggerated.

Unusual Sources of Tsunamis From Krakatoa to Monterey Bay
USGS 2017 January Evening Public Lecture, Eric Geist
by Eric Geist, USGS Research Geophysicist

Other very interesting USGS talks include:

The Giant Cascadia Earthquake of January 26, 1700
July Evening Public Lecture 2015
Justin Rubinstein, USGS Research Geophysicist

Underwater Secrets of the Hayward Fault
Zone: Integrated 3D imaging to understand
earthquake hazards
USGS 2017 May Evening Public Lecture

The Cascadia talk discusses how subfossil trees
were used to date the age of the last Cascadia
Earthquake and tsunami.

Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 19 October 2017

Midnight On The (Cosmic) Firing Line 19OCT2017

 Midnight On The (Cosmic) Firing Line

Below are a selection of news articles, of varying
sensationalism, to remind everyone what crowded
and potentially dangerous solar neighborhood
that both Earth and us occupy.

NASA Asteroid Hunter Explains the Risks that
Near Earth Objects Pose to Planet, Hanna Osborne,
Newsweek,

Space rock found to be travelling With Earth
Scientists have discovered that Earth is being
tailed by an Asteroid, Sean Martin, Express.

Asteroid 2012 TC4: Space rock could come
back and Smash into Earth in the near future
The asteroid which had a near miss with Earth
could come back and smash into the planet in
the future, researchers have warned,
Sean Martin, Express, Oct 13, 2017

How We Discovered, Lost, and Rediscovered
the First Asteroid. It was a lot of math and
staring through telescopes. Popular Mechanics

Samples Brought Back From Asteroid Itokawa
Reveal 'Rubble Pile' Had a Violent Past, Curtin
University Posted October 18, 2017

Near-Earth Objects News

What I am worried about is not the asteroids
that we know about. What worries me are the
asteroids that we do not know about and appear
abruptly out of the darkness like a drunk driver
on a New Orleans street.

Go read “Asteroid 2017 TF5 flew past Earth at
0.73 LD, 4 days before discovery, October 16, 2017

Unlike the dinosaurs, we have, if we want it, the
technology to possibly defend ourselves from
wayward asteroids.

Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 17 October 2017

Meteorites and Martian Volcanology 17OCT2017

 Meteorites and Martian Volcanology

Analysis of Martian meteorites has uncovered 90 million
years' worth of new information about one of the red plan
PhysOrg, October 4, 2017

The paper is:

Cohen, B.E., Mark, D.F., Cassata, W.S., Lee, M.R., Tomkinson,
T. and Smith, C.L., 2017. Taking the pulse of Mars via dating
of a plume-fed volcano. Nature communications, 8.

Cohen, B., 2017. Taking the Pulse of Mars via 40Ar/39Ar Dating
of a Plume-Fed Volcano. Goldschmidt 2017, Paris, France, 13-18 Aug 2017.

Yours,

Paul H.


Sunday 15 October 2017

Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and Missoula (Spokane) Megafloods 15OCT2017

 Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and Missoula (Spokane) Megafloods

There is a new paper containing research about the
Missoula (Spokane) megafloods that contain bad news
for those few proponents of the Younger Dryas impact
hypothesis, who argue that these megafloods were
a single megaflood and caused by a hypothetical Younger
Dryas Impact.

It is:

Balbas, A.M., Barth, A.M., Clark, P.U., Clark, J., Caffee,
M., O’Connor, J., Baker, V.R., Konrad, K. and Bjornstad,
B., 2017. 10Be dating of late Pleistocene megafloods
and Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat in the northwestern
United States. Geology, 45(7), pp.583-586

This paper contains cosmogenic 10Be ages that directly
date flood and glacial features important to understanding
the flood history, the evolution of the Channeled Scabland,
and relationships to the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Popular
authors of lay books for the general public, lecturers, and
podcasters, e.g. Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson cannot
dismiss these dates as they did any radiocarbon dates that
contradicted their beliefs as being older wood / bone
reworked from older sediments.

The last of the larger megafloods occurred at 18.2 ± 1.5 ka. It
flowed down the northwestern Columbia River valley prior to
blockage of this route by advance of the Okanogan ice lobe
of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The largest of multiple megafloods
predates the alleged Younger Dryas impact event by thousands
of years.

These dates show that the last of the megafloods from
glacial Lake Missoula occurred at about 14.7 ± 1.2 ka. The
youngest of the dated megaflood(s) (14.0 ± 1.4 ka to
14.4 ± 1.3 ka) likely came from glacial Lake Columbia,
indicating that the lake persisted for a few centuries after
the last Missoula megaflood. The last of the megafloods
predate the alleged Younger Dryas impact event by
thousands of years and came from two different sources.
The multiple megafloods that all are older than the
start of the Younger Dryas and, as a result, cannot be
associated with a hypothetical Younger Dryas event
as a few self-taught avocational investigators argue.

That there were multiple the Missoula (Spokane) megafloods
that predated a hypothetical Younger Dryas Impact is a
long standing idea based on solid evidence is shown by an
older and related Friends of the Pleistocene field trip
guidebook. It is:

Waitt, R.B., 1983. Tens of successive, colossal Missoula
floods at north and east margins of channeled scablands.
Friends of the Pleistocene, Rocky Mountain Cell, Guidebook
for 1983 Field Conference Day 2: 27 August 1983
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 83-671

More recent research will be presented at the October
22nd Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting
in Seattle. Go see:

Session No. 22. T174. Cordilleran Ice Sheet Outburst
Floods: From Glacial Lake Missoula to the Hubbard Glacier.
Sunday, 22 October 2017: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM.
GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017

Yours,

Paul H.


Monday 2 October 2017

Prelude to the extinction: Achchagyi-Allaikha and Berelyokh Mammoth Bone Beds 02OCT2017

 Prelude to the extinction: Achchagyi-Allaikha and Berelyokh Mammoth Bone Beds

A great paper about classic Siberian mammoth bone beds.

Nikolskiy, P.A., Basilyan, A.E., Sulerzhitsky, L.D.
and Pitulko, V.V., 2010. Prelude to the extinction:
revision of the Achchagyi–Allaikha and Berelyokh
mass accumulations of mammoth. Quaternary International,
219(1), pp. 16-25.

Also, there is:

Nikolskiy, P.A., Sulerzhitsky, L.D. and Pitulko, V.V.,
2011. Last straw versus Blitzkrieg overkill: climate-
driven changes in the Arctic Siberian mammoth population
and the Late Pleistocene extinction problem. Quaternary
Science Reviews, 30(17), pp. 2309-2328.

Yours,

Paul H.