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Large Pt anomaly in the Greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of Younger Dryas

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openalexMichail I. Petaev, Shichun Huang, S. B. Jacobsen, Alan ZindlerJuly 22, 2013
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Speculative history & mysteries

One explanation of the abrupt cooling episode known as the Younger Dryas (YD) is a cosmic impact or airburst at the YD boundary (YDB) that triggered cooling and resulted in other calamities, including the disappearance of the Clovis culture and the extinction of many large mammal species. We tested the YDB impact hypothesis by analyzing ice samples from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core across the Bølling-Allerød/YD boundary for major and trace elements. We found a large Pt anomaly at the YDB, not accompanied by a prominent Ir anomaly, with the Pt/Ir ratios at the Pt peak exce

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