Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset, c10,794 BC

THE IMPACT

 Illustration of airburst over the Euphrates floodplain. Artist: Jennifer Rice.

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According to the journal *Nature*, in the article “Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset,” around 10,794 B.C., approximately 12,800 years ago, Earth was struck by one of the most catastrophic events in its recent history: a shower of cometary debris struck our planet, with impacts recorded on at least four continents. The event produced two main effects: on the one hand, localized explosions with the power of hydrogen bombs, which wiped out all forms of life in the affected areas; on the other, a sudden global cooling, triggered by the dust cloud raised by the impacts and by chain reactions in biogeochemical cycles. This event is known today as the beginning of the Younger Dryas, a brief but intense ice age.

(Illustration for an article by Eric Ralls)

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The journal *Science* describes the impact as follows: “A white fireball, four times larger than the Sun, streaked across the sky. The explosion vaporized rock and ice. The shock wave was felt hundreds of kilometers away.” Further support for this scenario comes from the Tunguska event (1908), where an object exploded in the atmosphere over Siberia, felling 80 million trees and producing an explosion a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. No crater was ever found. This example suggests that large atmospheric explosions can leave devastating traces even without a direct impact on the ground.

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According to an estimate proposed by Kennett et al. (PNAS, 2015), the mortality indirectly caused by the Younger Dryas may have affected between 30% and 60% of the human populations in the affected areas. Based on a conservative estimate of 5 million humans in the late Pleistocene, this means between 1.5 and 3 million deaths in the first two centuries following the event.

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The comet impact, the Younger Dryas, rising sea levels, and the desertification of the Sahara created the greatest period of crisis for the human species since the Toba supervolcano disaster. Before this catastrophe, a sort of global maritime civilization had formed along the tropical belt, traveling from east to west along the equator. Starting from Sundaland, this civilization had reached Yonaguni, Nan Madol, and the Pacific islands, then landed in Central and South America, and from there set out again toward northwestern Africa, the Richat Structure, and perhaps southern Turkey, including Göbekli Tepe. It was a global culture, technologically advanced and tied to celestial and marine cycles. But all of this was wiped out in just a few centuries: the comet impact, global cooling, rising sea levels, and the desertification of the Sahara marked the end of this era. People had to start all over again. But the traces—whether buried or submerged—continue to tell us a forgotten story.

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From the book “Before us there was someone“.

High-temperature melting at >2200 °C.
Andrew M T Moore, James P Kennett, William M Napier, Ted E Bunch, James C Weaver, Malcolm LeCompte, A Victor Adedeji, Paul Hackley, Gunther Kletetschka, Robert E Hermes, James H Wittke, Joshua J Razink, Michael W Gaultois, Allen West.

At Abu Hureyra (AH), Syria, the 12,800-year-old Younger Dryas boundary layer (YDB) contains peak abundances in meltglass, nanodiamonds, microspherules, and charcoal. AH meltglass comprises 1.6 wt.% of bulk sediment, and crossed polarizers indicate that the meltglass is isotropic. High YDB concentrations of iridium, platinum, nickel, and cobalt suggest mixing of melted local sediment with small quantities of meteoritic material. Approximately 40% of AH glass display carbon-infused, siliceous plant imprints that laboratory experiments show formed at a minimum of 1200°–1300 °C; however, reflectance-inferred temperatures for the encapsulated carbon were lower by up to 1000 °C. Alternately, melted grains of quartz, chromferide, and magnetite in AH glass suggest exposure to minimum temperatures of 1720 °C ranging to >2200 °C. This argues against formation of AH meltglass in thatched hut fires at 1100°–1200 °C, and low values of remanent magnetism indicate the meltglass was not created by lightning. Low meltglass water content (0.02–0.05% H₂O) is consistent with a formation process similar to that of tektites and inconsistent with volcanism and anthropogenesis. The wide range of evidence supports the hypothesis that a cosmic event occurred at Abu Hureyra ~12,800 years ago, coeval with impacts that deposited high-temperature meltglass, melted microspherules, and/or platinum at other YDB sites on four continents.

Abu Hureyra is a mound settlement (commonly known as a “tell”) located in northern Syria along the Euphrates River.

(Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset (~12.8 ka): High-temperature melting at >2200 °C – PMC)

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