Mississippi Tsunami and Caribbean Megafloods

Mississippi Tsunami and Caribbean Megafloods

While doing research on Ice Age art in North America I came upon something quite different that was worth going into here. Quoting from a site which displays some highly controversial works that the authors are supporting as Ice-age art (Which we need not go into at present):

A more recent theory propose prehistoric Solutreans of Ice Age France also sailed west to America across the Atlantic Ocean along the south ridge of the polar ice cap more than 18,000 years ago. It is thought they brought Clovis point technology (earlier, similar points were found in France) and genetic diversity (such as red hair and large noses) to Native Americans.[2]
....
What Happened to the Mega Fauna and the Paleo-Indian? Then suddenly everything changed. A geological black-layer deposit of carbon containing nano-diamonds at over 50 locations in North America tells the tale: About 12,900 years ago a huge Ice Age comet hit the atmosphere just above Canada. The discoverer, Geologist James Kennett, also found an abnormally high percentage of these nano-diamonds in a Greenland Glacier at the 12,900-year layer. What happens next is like something out of a Doomsday sci-fi movie: The exploding comet creates a giant white-hot tornado and sets forests ablaze killing off just about everything and everybody in North America. The remaining vegetation would have been charred, forcing starvation upon surviving mega fauna. The comet probably did-in Paleo Indian as well.[8] This comet melted a good portion the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the resultant flood waters changed the Atlantic currents. This combined with ash and soot in the atmosphere, plunged the Northern Hemisphere into a Mini-Ice Age for another 1,200 years.[9]
[2] America’s Stone Age Explorers, 2004 WGBH Education Foundation
[8] http://www.livescience.com/animals/070521_comet_climate.html
[9] http://www.nola.com/national/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1193981665115410.xml&coll=1At the time of the supposed burst, a relatively mild interglacial stage was going on with continental glaciers then retreated North of the Great Lakes and settled down into Eastern Canada. The time of the burst has a good series of radiocarbon dates in the realm of 10500 to 10900 years ago: 12000 years ago or even 12000 BC is an unwarranted recalibration sought for this theory by its originators. And insisting on that point just might have been what cost them official sanction of the theory.
To quote a different site:

A team of researchers have uncovered evidence that a Mega-Flood, or series of megafloods, from beneath the Ice Age Laurentide Ice Sheet shaped the Bahama Islands. These Mega-Floods traveled down the Mississippi River Valley and into the gulf of Mexico.
These Megafloods entered the Gulf, rapidly raising the water level and forcing the overflow out through the much smaller Florida/Cuba Straits. This Glacial overflow then spread across the lower lying area known as the Bahama Mega-Bank. 12,000yrs. ago, (with sea levels at least 300 ft. lower than today) the Bahama Mega-Bank was an exposed land mass larger than present day Florida.
The megafloods originated from Glacial Lake Agassiz. Lake Agassiz was an Ice Age Lake formed by receding Glaciers.and covered an area of roughly 365,000 square miles. It was the largest lake in the world. The megafloods from Lake Agassiz traveled down the 120 mile wide, 600 mile long Mississippi River Valley. The Mississippi Valley covers an area of 35,000 sq. miles and was itself cut out by this same Ice Age flooding. The Ice Age melt water through this valley fed into the Gulf of Mexico...


...These outbursts would flood the Mississippi River Valley, destroying everything in their path as they surged through the 600 mile long, 120 mile wide valley and poured into the Gulf of Mexico. So much water would flood through the Mississippi Valley that offshoot valleys would be flooded in an attempt to contain the flood waters. These outburst are what overfilled the Gulf of Mexico and caused a Mega-Flood (or series of Mega-Floods) through the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
These continual floodings (or Burps) of glacial melt water into the Gulf of Mexico increased the water level of the Gulf. This overflow of water would surge through the narrower Florida/Cuba opening and is responsible for enlarging the Florida/Cuba Straits. This same overflow then washed down the lower laying Bahama Mega-Bank into the Islands left there today. The washed down areas were then covered by sea level rise at the close of the Ice Age.
These Mega-Floods also carved away at least 50 miles of the narrow western tip of Cuba. This area was once a partial land bridge of islands spanning towards the Yucatan peninsula. The north eastern portion of Yucatan was also washed down and submerged at this time due to rising sea levels at the end of the Ice Age. These actions are what created the much broader Yucatan Channel of today.
Sediment cores retrived from these regions indicate that these southern floods came to an end around 9,000 BC. The final drainage of Lake Agassiz was northeast into the Hudson Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This final drainage is thought by some to have been so powerful, that it shut down the Gulf Stream and brought about the Younger Dryas period (a very wet cooling period that affected the entire planet). This in turn caused the mass extinction, or near extinction, of plants, animals and people worldwide.http://www.sott.net/articles/show/216660-Ice-Age-Megaflood-Shaped-Bahamas
Unfortunately for the theory, the Lake Agassiz did not exist at the specified time or location as shown on the map. And the actual date of the outpouring of the glacial Lake Agassiz is usually dated to HALF the age presented in this scenario. However, the area indicated as Lake Agassiz on the map might well indicate the approximate location of the explosion of the celestial body in question. Its fragments would in turn rain down over the Eastern United States and into the North Atlantic.
Another similar view ofthe megafloods washing out the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, presented as an Atlantis theory is posted at:
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_10_atlantis_asmith.htm

I will probably want to go into that more at a different tine but the site the link goes to is not the originating site and I would like to contact the original owner first.


The various articles like to speak of these floods as Tidal Waves or Tsunamis. That might seem to be the wrong term to use,but in fact the first wave of destruction was saltwater. We can tell this because it left saline soils in its wake, not only in the Great Lakes Area and in parts of Northern Europe, but also in Central America and the Northern parts of South America, Spain and in North Africa. All were affected by the same enormous Tsunami that originated in the Noth Atlantic and overflowed in all directions, flowing along the channels as indicated in the Outburst Flood Scenario. AND THEN the Freshwater floods followed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outburst_flood

Glacial lake outburst floods in North America (13,000 to 8,000 years ago)
.....
The last of the North American proglacial lakes, north of the present Great Lakes, has been designated Glacial Lake Ojibway by geologists. It reached its largest volume around 8,500 years ago, when joined with Lake Agassiz. But its outlet was blocked by the great wall of the glaciers and it drained by tributaries, into the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers far to the south. About 8,300 to 7,700 years ago, the melting ice dam over Hudson Bay's southernmost extension narrowed to the point where pressure and its buoyancy lifted it free, and the ice-dam failed catastrophically. Lake Ojibway's beach terraces show that it was 250 metres (820 ft) above sea level. The volume of Lake Ojibway is commonly estimated to have been about 163,000 cubic kilometres, more than enough water to cover a flattened-out Antarctica with a sheet of water 10 metres (33 ft) deep. That volume was added to the world's oceans in a matter of months.
The detailed timing and rates of change after the onset of melting of the great ice-sheets are subjects of continuing study.
There is also a strong possibility that a global climatic change in recent geological time brought about some large deluge. Evidence is mounting from ice-cores in Greenland that the switch from a glacial to an inter-glacial period can occur over just a few months, rather than over the centuries that earlier research suggested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoldia_sea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Sea

Actually at the time in question there was an inrush of seawater known to have taken place simultaneously along the St. Lawrence Seaway and into the Baltic Sea, around the fronts of the glaciers in both continents, and among their remains can be seen signs of a catastrophic tsunami headed inland, such as whale skeletons left stranded in the mountains. On the European side there was an influx of Saltwater which created the Yoldia Sea and in North America the Champlain Sea was formed. Both areas were marked by deposits of what are called quick clays
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_clay

Which in Russia also go to show that the ocean waters rolled much further inland than just the shores of the Baltic and indeed also indicated megafloods on their side draining into the Black and Caspian Seas, if not also rushing deeper into Siberia where the Ob basin was innundated at times during the Ice Ages.

At the same time as these catastrophic floods were going on. a lot of atmospheric dust was filtering down with the help of rainwater and being deposited as loess. There is rather a lot of loess around but some dispute over what it represents and how long it took to be deposited. In part that goes along with the other problems of getting good radiocarbon dates in this period. However, I can tell by looking at the maps that some of the indicated watercourses are loess beds of today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_event


Younger Dryas impact hypothesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Younger Dryas event)

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis was the hypothesized large air burst or earth impact of an object or objects from outer space that initiated the Younger Dryas cold period about 12,900 BP calibrated (10,900 BP uncalibrated).

One scenario proposes that an air burst and/or earth impact with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets set vast areas of the North American continent on fire, causing the extinction of most of the large animals in North America and the demise of the North American Clovis culture at the end of the last glacial period.[1] This swarm would have exploded above or even into the Laurentide Ice Sheet north of the Great Lakes. An airburst would have been similar to but many orders of magnitude larger than the Tunguska event of 1908. Animal and human life not directly killed by the blast or the resulting coast to coast wildfires would have starved on the burned surface of the continent.

The scenario has been the subject of criticism and doubts. Impact specialists have studied the claim and concluded in 2010 that there never was such an impact, in particular because various physical signs of such an impact cannot be found.[2] The evidence for the event has been thoroughly dismissed, and the hypothesis is no longer considered viable in the scientific community.[3]

--This from Wikipedia. The hypothesis was clearly worded wrongly from the onset. One of the major problems is the radiocarbon-recalibration of dates, which in this case was obviously subject to a disequilibrium owing to the catastrophe described itself. The Carbon-14 balance was altered by the event. Because of this, dates before the event were off in one direction, coincidentally about right for a brief period, and then wrong in the other direction. So in this case the date of 10900 years ago (plus or minus 500 years) should have been left alone.
Here in Indiana a lot of the experts were impressed by the microdiamonds (and even larger diamonds) resulting from the event, and the Wikipedia entry quotes an article about the evidence in the Ohio and Indiana area "The only plausible scenario available now for explaining their presence this far south is the kind of cataclysmic explosive event described by West’s theory. "We believe this is the strongest evidence yet indicating a comet impact in that time period," says Tankersley." [Exploding Asteroid Theory Strengthened by New Evidence Located in Ohio, Indiana, http://www.uc.edu/News/NR.aspx?ID=8625 ]
Furthermore saying there "Is no evidence" of an exploding body over Southern Canada when there are hundreds of splintered meteorite impacts along the East Coast as a result-the Carolina Bays-and several large chinks of the meteorites on display at the American Museum of Natural History-The Cape York Meteorites- is just WRONG. And I don't care who "the scientific community" might be on this occasion, when they have dismissed the theory on the grounds "there is no evidence" when the evidence is staring them right in the face, "the scientific community" has not got the right to venture any such an opinion nor yet to dismiss any possibility of an impact at the time.

Youngest-Dryas Age Vulcanism in Central Europe and the North Atlantic

Youngest-Dryas Age Vulcanism in Central Europe and the North Atlantic

Dryas-age (Final Ice Age) Volcanic Bomb from Fayal, Azores (Wikipedia) Some of these are reported as dredged up from the ocean bed and consistently date as having erupted between 12000 and 8000 BC or 14000 to 10000 years ago.Lava has to be flung into the air (above water) to have this shape and texture. 



Map showing Youngest Dryas and Earliest Postglacial volcanic ash in Central Europe and the North Atlantic. Please note how the lava fragments go up to what was then the glacial front in Scandinavia. There is another transatlantic band further to the south which runs up to the then-glacial front on the American side. 
http://rockglacier.blogspot.com/2010/04/tephrostratigraphy.html 
http://www.tephrabase.org/cgi_bin/tbase_lst1.pl?country=x 

Laacher See tephra blown by winds away from point of origin in West Germany.

Lac Lautrey core indicating presence of tephra in pereiod of 14 to 8 thousand years BP. The margin for error includes the same C14 date correction used by several of the "Clovis comet" theorists.

"Bombe Volcanique" from Le Puy region, France. 

http://www.colorado.edu/INSTAAR/AW2004/get_abstr.html?id=67

TOWARDS A TEPHROCHRONOLOGY FRAMEWORK FOR THE LAST GLACIAL/INTERGLACIAL TRANSITION IN SCANDINAVIA AND THE FAROE ISLANDS

WASTEGåRD, STEFAN Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Davies, Siwan M. Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, UK.
Turney, Chris S.M. School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University, Belfast, UK.
Wohlfarth, Barbara Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden.


The Last Glacial/Interglacial transition (LGIT; ca 15-8 cal. ka BP) was a period of rapid climatic transitions around the North Atlantic. Although close similarities are evident in the palaeoclimatic reconstructions obtained from terrestrial, marine and ice-core records for the LGIT, uncertainties exist as to the degree of synchroneity (or asynchroneity) between them, largely due to the limitations of the radiocarbon dating method (radiocarbon plateaux, reservoir effects) and the lack of suitable dating methods for the time period before ca 40 ka BP. Therefore, new approaches are required for geochronology models and correlation of sequences and events. One method that holds much promise of effecting more precise regional correlations is tephrochronology.

Ten years ago, only three tephra horizons were described from this time period in Scandinavia and the Faroes: the Saksunarvatn Tephra (ca 10.2 cal. ka BP), the Vedde Ash (ca 12.0 cal. ka BP) and the Laacher See Tephra (LST, ca 12.9 cal. ka BP). The first two of these are of Icelandic origin while the LST has its origin in the Eifel volcanic field in SW Germany.

A technique for extracting cryptotephra (a tephra horizon invisible to the naked eye) has revolutionised the application of tephrochronology in minerogenic deposits from the LGIT (Turney, 1998). This technique relies upon the difference between the specific gravity of the tephra shards and the host sediment matrix and has led to the first discovery of the Vedde Ash on the British mainland as well as the previously unrecorded Borrobol Tephra, dated to ca. 14.4 cal. ka BP (Fig. 1; e.g. Turney et al., 1997). In Sweden, this technique led to the first discovery of the Vedde Ash, as well as a previously unrecorded rhyolitic tephra dated to ca 10.2 cal. ka BP (the Högstorpsmossen Tephra; Björck et al., 2002). The rhyolitic component of the Vedde Ash was also found in two sites on the Karelian Isthmus in NW Russia, greatly extending the distribution of this important marker horizon (Fig. 1; Wastegård et al., 2000). Recently, the Borrobol Tephra and two new tephra horizons, the Hässeldalen Tephra (ca 11.5 cal. ka BP) and the Askja 10-ka Tephra (ca 11.2 cal. ka BP) were discovered in LGIT deposits from Blekinge, SE Sweden, (Fig. 1; Davies et al., 2003). An effort to date the Borrobol Tephra in Sweden using wiggle-matching of AMS-dates to the Cariaco basin chronology (Hughen et al., 2004) yielded an age of ca 13.9 cal. ka BP, indicating that the Borrobol Tephra in Sweden and Scotland either represents two separate eruptions from the same volcanic system, or that the British age estimate is slightly too old (Davies et al., 2004). Lacustrine records from Andøya, north Norway (Fig. 1) extending back to ca 20 cal. ka BP are also under investigation as well as the classic Vallengaard mose site on Bornholm, Denmark (Fig. 1) that contains a visible occurrence of the Laacher See Tephra (ca 12.9 cal. ka BP).

Sediments from the Lateglacial seem to be missing on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, probably due to an extensive ice cover during the Younger Dryas which may have removed older deposits. The Saksunarvatn Tephra is visible in several sections and in lake sediments and is an important marker horizon for the Early Holocene. Silicic tephra horizons below the Saksunarvatn Tephra have been found at two sites, the L3574 Tephra (Dugmore and Newton, 1998) from Lake Saksunarvatn (the type site for the Saksunarvatn Tephra) and the Hovsdalur Tephra dated to ca 10.5 cal. ka BP (Wastegård, 2002). The highly silicic Hovsdalur Tephra has an identical geochemistry to the Hässeldalen Tephra (Fig. 2), but is ca 1000 years younger. A rhyolitic tephra called the Suduroy Tephra, dated to 8 cal. ka BP was also found in the Hovsdalur site on the southern island of Suduroy. This tephra has a geochemistry similar to the rhyolitic component of the Vedde Ash and the IA2 tephra from the Rockall Trough, west of Ireland (ca 13.5-13.0 cal. ka BP; Bond et al., 2001). This indicates that “Vedde-like” rhyolitic eruptions of the Katla volcano may have persisted during the Lateglacial into the Early Holocene. After the Holmsá event (ca 7.6 cal. ka BP; Larsen, 2000) the composition of the silicic magma below the Katla volcano seems to have changed to a more dacitic composition. This is indicated by the fairly homogeneous composition of the so called SILK tephras erupted between the Holmsá and Eldgjá (AD 930s) events (Larsen et al., 2001).

REFERENCES 
Björck, J., Andrén, T., Wastegård, S., Possnert, G., and Schoning, K., 2002, An event stratigraphy for the Last Glacial-Holocene transition in eastern middle Sweden: results from investigations of varved clay and terrestrial sequences. Quaternary Science Reviews v. 21, p. 1489-1501. 
Bond, G., Mandeville, C., and Hoffmann, S., 2001, Were rhyolitic glasses in the Vedde ash and in the North Atlantic's Ash Zone 1 produced by the same volcanic eruption? Quaternary Science Reviews v. 20, p. 1189-1199. 
Davies, S. M., Branch, N. P., Lowe, J. J., and Turney, C. S. M., 2002, Towards a European tephrochronological framework for Termination 1 and the Early Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences v. 360, p. 767-802. 
Davies, S. M., Wastegård, S., and Wohlfarth, B., 2003, Extending the limits of the Borrobol Tephra to Scandinavia and detection of new early Holocene tephras. Quaternary Research v. 59, p. 345-352. 
Davies, S. M., Wohlfarth, B., Wastegård, S., Andersson, M., Blockley, S., and Possnert, G., 2004, Were there two Borrobol Tephras during the early Late-glacial period: implications for tephrochronology? Quaternary Science Reviews v. 23, p. 581-589. 
Dugmore, A. J., and Newton, A. J., 1998, Holocene Tephra Layers in the Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit v. 46, p. 191-204. 
Hughen, K., Lehman, S., Southon, J., Overpeck, J., Marchal, O., Herring, C., and Turnbull, J., 2004, 14C Activity and Global Carbon Cycle Changes over the past 50,000 years. Science v. 303, p. 202-207. 
Larsen, G., 2000, Holocene eruptions within the Katla volcanic system, south Iceland: Characteristics and environmental impact. Jökull v. 49, p. 1-28. 
Larsen, G., Newton, A., Dugmore, A., and Vilmundardóttir, E., 2001, Geochemistry, dispersal, volumes and chronology of Holocene silicic tephra layers from the Katla volcanic system, Iceland. Journal of Quaternary Science v. 16, p. 119-132. 
Mangerud, J., Furnes, H., and Johansen, J., 1986,. A 9000-year-old ash bed on the Faroe Islands. Quaternary Research v. 26, p. 262-265. 
Mangerud, J., Lie, S. E., Furnes, H., Kristiansen, I. L., and Lømo, L., 1984, A Younger Dryas ash bed in western Norway, and its possible correlations with tephra in cores from the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic. Quaternary Research v. 21, p. 85-104. 
Turney, C. S. M., 1998, Extraction of rhyolitic component of Vedde microtephra from minerogenic lake sediments. Journal of Paleolimnology v. 19, p. 199-206. 
Turney, C. S. M., Harkness, D. D., and Lowe, J. J., 1997, The use of microtephra horizons to correlate late-glacial lake sediment successions in Scotland. Journal of Quaternary Science v. 12, p. 525-531. 
Usinger, H., 1977, Bölling-Interstadial and Laacher Bimstuff in einem neuen Spätglazial-Profil aus dem Vallensgård Mose/Bornholm. Mit pollen-größenstatistischer Trennung der Birken. Geological Survey of Denmark, Yearbook, p. 5-29. 
Wastegård, S., 2002, Early to Middle Holocene silicic tephra horizons from the Katla volcanic system, Iceland: new results from the Faroe Islands. Journal of Quaternary Science v. 17, p. 723-730. 
Wastegård, S., Wohlfarth, B., Subetto, D. A., and Sapelko, T. V., 2000, Extending the known distribution of the Younger Dryas Vedde Ash into northwestern Russia. Journal of Quaternary Science v. 15, p. 581-586. 
Figure 1. Map showing investigated sites in Sweden, Denmark (black diamonds) and the Faroe Islands. The type sites for the Vedde Ash, the Borrobol Tephra and the Saksunarvatn Tephras are also marked as well as volcanic centres on Iceland. 
Figure 2. Biplot of SiO2 and K2O concentrations in tephras from the LGIT in Scandinavia and the Faroe Islands. The envelopes show the composition in tephra from some of the main European volcanic provinces (modified after Mangerud et al., 1984 and Davies et al., 2002).Figure 3. Table 1. Tephra horizons from the LGIT (ca 15-8 cal. ka BP) found in terrestrial deposits in Scandinavia and the Faroe Islands. Ages are given as cal yr. BP This does seem to indicate a continuing series of eruptions starting at the Youngest Dryas event ("Clovis Comet" C14 corrected date of 12-13 thousand BC but direct C14 date of 10-11 thousand BP on average) and continuing on as an aftershock to approx. 6000 BC [which is about the time of the Mt. Mazama ash (Crater lake formation), an eruption of Mt. St. Helens and major eruptions also in Kamchitka, Siberia and in Japan.] I would count the ash deposits from ALL the events between Laacher See to Hogstorpsmossen (12000 to 10200 years ago by the chart) as probably about the same date within a margin for error and as levels representing the same event or related events. Some of the ash got as far as Spitzbergeb, by the way. 

The important thing to realise is that basically the entire floor of the North Atlantic is covered with fragments of aerated lava at about this same date, and large areas of Europe and probably North Africa, Mexico and the Caribbean are also. It is a known fact that there were major eruptions going on in the Azores and Canary Islands as well as Iceland, simultaneously, and then a large number of "Ring of Fire" volcanoes erupting at a slightly later, delayed date, with some of the echo-eruptions going on for as many as two or three thousand years afterwards. 

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Younger Dryas-Sudden Cooling

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.gr/search/label/Younger%20Dryas

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Younger Dryas-Sudden Cooling

This reconstructed temperature map for the younger dryas event is more significant than the makers realised. It is also virtually a snapshot of the condition of the earth at the point the celestial-body-impact began to make its effects known: this is because when the event hit, it was like going from a mild early-summer climate in the Northern hemisphere immediately into the middle of a harsh winter. And this map basically goes to indicate where the thick cloud of dust covered the land and brought down the temperatures from the onset of the event (compare the next map below)

Using the figures provided by Otto Muck about the submergence of Atlantis, the eruptions at the mid-Atlantic ridge in the vicinity of the Azores led to the immediate formation of a mushroom cloud 25 to 50 miles high and up to 1000 miles wide in a disc shape. It contained 5  million cubic miles of water and up to 1/2 million cubic miles of aerated volcanic dust and debris. Within a very short while, the jet stream winds had whipped the debris cloud around the Northern Hemisphere : it was high enough and thick enough to eventually reach the Southern Hemisphere and disrupt weather patterns there also. The cloud was mostly heavily laden with water vapour and atomized volcanic dust, but also included lethal levels of carbon monoxide and carbon  dioxide.

Younger Dryas Impacts on Climate
From a different website, but indicating specific evidences that go toward reinforcing the big picture. There was also a strong upwelling (deepwater rsing to the top layers and altering temperature levels and possibly even the atmosphere) along the US East coast. This upwelling could also have come along with belches of methane gas from the great depths. The volcanic activity is gone into with more specific details below.

The  inspiration for this posting comes because of Rodney Chilton's book and blog Sudden Cold, concerning the Younger Dryas period. The younger Dryas really was an aburpt change in climate but also in mant other ways, including some geophysical readjustments and not to neglect evidences for both a geomagnetic inversion but also a shifting of the Earth's outer crust over the inner layers (The outer crustal layers are not in any way anchored to the lower levels and a molten band called the Athenisphere separates the two: and also it is known now that the different layers of the earth's interior rotate at different speeds and are not in synch; therefore slippage between the different layers is not only to be expected, it is a continual ongoing process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/climatedebate
http://anthropology.net/2009/12/09/the-clovis-comet-that-wasnt-mystery-deepens/http://www.joyofcrisis.com/JoyofCrisis.com/Something_Strange_Happened.html
http://ie.lbl.gov/mammoth/mammoth.html
http://bcclimate.com/
http://bcclimate.com/Comet%20Impact%20Hypotheses.html
http://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Cosmic-Catastrophes-Stone-Age-Changed/dp/1591430615

 Arctic conditions were heralded by the presence of this flowering tundra plant, the Dryas octopetalia

Chronology of the Younger Dryas event as recorded in Greenland Ice layers Using the unadjusted C14 dates 

Nature, Vol. 323 18 September 1986 p. 247
"Late-Glacial Climatic Oscillation in Atlantic Equivalent to the Alerod/ Younger Dryas Event" Robert J. Mott, Douglas R. Grant, Ralph Stear and Serge Occhetti.

The shores of Newfoundlandland and New Brunswicke at ca 10000 BC were lined with birch and spruce trees during a relatively warmer interval, but were struck with a sudden "widespread and synochrous climatic disturbance of sufficient magnitude to strongly affect depositional environments throughout Atlanic Canada." Organic deposition was replaced by mineral deposition and sand banks covered the former forest beds at about 11000 years ago. the mineral deposits covered over all ponds, lakes, peat beds, land areas and water courses [in fact the Carolina Bays were filled in with similar sediment at the same time. see photo below for Carolina bays] This is asociated with "Stirred" sedimrentary layers and false radiocarbon dates.
This event is correlated to North Atlantic cores which demonstrate that at 14000-15000 BP the polar front lay across the Ocean at about 40 degrees North back to a nearly "modern" polar front N. of Iceland before 11000 years ago (C14 dates about 9200 BC) and then with an excursion to another polar front as before at almost exactly 11000-10000 BP C14 nonadjusted dates, averaging at Muck's date of ca 8500 BC for this event. Furthermore there is an ash bed full across the North Atlantic at exactly this same level, and it extends from New England to Iceland to Scandinavia again at the dates estimated at 8500-8600 BC. From the depositional qualities mentioned  in the article, it wseems there was a massive  wave scouring off the coastlines before the glacial advance : Water and then followed by Ice: increased precipitation and erosion, including flushing sediments into the ocean beds, had occurred BEFORE the glaciers had re-advanced. This Younger Drryas event was one of global scope: "Not simply a North Atlantic  regional phenomenon resulting from ice shelf breakup, meltwater diversion, reorientation of atmospheric flow or deepwater production" although all of threse things were asociated with the event. 

Map of glaciation at glacial maximum. The Younger Dryas was a period when the glacier was in retreat in an intergalcial stage, marked in Britain by the presence of warm-weather beetles in forest bed deposits, and then the climate did a suddenn about-face to full-glacial conditions again.

One of the things I found out about this recently was that the event was marked by a sudden glacial melting at the margin which was linked to the idea of a comet exploding over the region. Robert Kline specifies that the explosion was over Hudson's Bay, then the North Pole going by Hapgood's construction. I do not follow Hapgood so rigidly but I do note that the event occurred near Hudson's Bay. 

another map indicating the melt area as a forerunner of Lake Agassiz: the ACTUAL Lake Agassiz would not form until the melting of the glacier which READVANCED after this event. At this time, approx 9000 BC uncalibrated C14 date, there was an extensive forest over Michigan, Illinois and Indiana known as the Two Creeks Forest bed: the forest got knocked down when the glaciers readvanced. The usually-recognised Lake Agassiz was formed in the wake of the Younger Dryas in RETREAT

This is a map of a more extreme estimation of how much inland area was under water following the event just described and comparable to an estimated Intergalacial high. as I see it, this represents the approximate boundaries of the sea wave before the reglaciation-a colossal tsunami that met the coastlines at several thousand feet high and swept inland to an altitude of 1000 ft mid-continent. In certan older books about the glacial period you would get references to the submergence, or more  limited subsections of it such as the "Hershey Sea". This event was also the one in which whale skeletons became stranded on mountaintops, oceanic seashells wound up in the Midwest of the USA and in European Russia, and many of the small lakes and soils of the area registered as distinctly saline after the wave retreated. (I have articles from SCIENCE magazine about this salinization event)

Illustration of the "Black Bed" layer in a cross-section of a hillside The Black beds are visually distinctive And there are the Black beds everywhere, indicating the precipitation out of black carbonaceous (sooty) material out of the Atmosphere over a wide area.

Carbonized upper layer of fossil soil, illustrating the ash layer caused by intense forest fires of the period. This carbonized layer is the layer that can contain tektites and minidiamonds (indicating a collision with a large comet or asteroid)

Carolina Bays, Putative massively cratered beds all along the US East coast and commonly thought to be the result of heavy meteorite showers at the end of the Ice Age and simultaneous woth the Cape Yourk meteorites in Northern Greenland, also from the end of the Pleistocene. 

Zhirov's Atlantis states on p383 bottom to 385 top, "Many investigators point out that Plato's date of the destruction of Atlantis synchronizes with many geological and other events. For example, Y.G. Reshetov draws attention that this date harmonizes with the eruption of Eifel [volcanic field in Germany] and Puy de Dome, and with tectonic activity in the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathians, the Caucasus and elsewhere. A.A. Gorbovsky likewise underscores this date. G. Arrnius notes that the end of the last glaciation was accompanied by violent volcanic eruptions at Lake Laachern in Central Europe, in Iceland, and the North Atlantic generally, in the Mediterranean, along the entire Andes coast of Central and South America, in Patagonia and in other areas" Zhirov gives dates for the destruction of Atlantis from Muck's date of 8498 BC to a more general date of 9500 BC, which is within the same general margin for error (My notes speak of the problems of C14 dates at this juncture at tis point)
Zhirov's chart on p. 382 includes #13, Great volcanic eruptions of the North Atlantic after Bramlette and Bradley, Klenova and Larov, and the Piggott-Urrey cores, at about 10000 years ago.
#14 End of Allerod interstadial in Europe after Barendsen, Deevey and Gralenski approx 9500-8500 BC [Thereafter the Dryas Glacial period-DD]
#15, First considerable penetration of warm Atlantic waters into the Arctic ocean after Yermolayev, 1000 to 8000 years ago (ie, earliest Postglacial 8000 to 6000 BC: and this also includes spreading of loose Atlantic volcanic debris into the Arctic Ocean near Spitzbergen noted by more recent American authors)
#16 Latest eruption of the Eifel volcano after Straka, 9350 years ago or 7350 BC
Elsewhere Zhirov also notes a lava flow on the site of modern Mexico city at just before 8100 BC

The Smithsonian Institution's publication Volcanores of the World list the following from the earliest Postglacial period (Glacial-period eruptions are not on this list):
ca 8000-9000 BC Lassen Peak, California
ca 8600 to 8000 BC, Eifel Volcanic field
ca 8450 to 8150 BC, Mount Shasta, California
ca 8250 to 8050 BC, Emuangogolak, East Africa
ca 8100-8000 BC, Taupo volcanic crater New Zealand (very large)
ca 8100-8000 BC, Mt Edziza, Canada
ca 8250-8000 BC (possibly less) Chaine des Puys, France
ca 8040-7635 BC SW Lake, Taupo fields,New Zealand
b.7900 BC, Ruapehu, New Zealand (very large)
b. 7900 BC, Lipari Islands, Italy
ca 7750 BC, Taupo volcanic crater, New Zealand (very large)
ca 7950- 7550 BC Tongariro New Zealand (very large)
ca 7750-7500 BC, Hijiori, Japan
ca 7610-7475 BC, Mt Adams, Washington
ca 7660-7460 BC Witori group, New Britain, Melanesia
ca 7530 -7440 BC, Luinaya Pas'i, Kurile Islands, Siberia (very large)
ca 7530-7000 BC, secondary cone formation at Mt Shasta (very large)
ca. 7500 BC, Ushiship caldera, Kurile islands, Siberia

The Denise skeleton was buried in a lava flow associated with Le Puy and was considered very ancient as a result, but it turns out to be final-Pleistocene because the contemporaneous skeleton of a mammoth later also turned up in the same stratum. The Laschamp magnetically inverted period is associated and this lava flow is magnetically reversed. The latest possible date of this would be 7500- 8000 BC as the date of a sediment laver over the deposits.

A lava flow at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, is thought to date from the end of the Pleistocene, 8000-9000 BC. (Volcanoes in the Sea, Gordon A. MacDonald, 1983) There are also mudslides in late-Pleistocene Hawaii that are simultaneous to mudslides in the Cascade mountains area, including Mt St Helens.

Charles Hapgood in Path of the Pole mentions five Japanese volcanoes thought to have erupted at the end of the Pleistocene (C14 dates estimated variously at 7000 to 12000 BC, p 135-136) and he notes the volcanoes in Patagonia gioing off simultaneously(Dated asaround 8000 to 7000 BC). Furthermore he quotes Frank Hibben of the U of New Mexico as to the existance of lava debris beds in association with the quickfrozen Mammoth beds of Siberia and Alaska.(Hibben, Frank C, The Lost Americans, 1946). There are also extensive lava flows in Central Asia at this time: all of these flows are at dates around 8000-9000 BC (Radiocarbon-non-adjusted)

Fred M Bullard's Volcanoes of the Earth, 1984, gives us the further information:
Mt Mazuma (>Crater Lake) erupted several times prior to its final explosion at about 6000 BC which blew 15 cubic miles off the top of the mountain (p 83). The original cones of Mt Aetna,  Krakatoa and Vesuvius are thought to have formed during eruptions at the end of the Pleistocene. There might well have been lesser eruptions at Thera/Santorini at this same period in time.(p 85-87)
Sometime about 10000 years ago a volcano erupted in Nicaragua leaving ash beds which preserve the tracks of ice-age animals and people. Mount Pelee, Martinique is also formed inside a prehistoric caldera (p 121) Pelee and other volcanoes on Guadeloupe and Dominica were volcanically very active at the close of the pleistocene (118-119)
Mount Lanington, Papua New Guinea, also erupted at this time, somewhere between 9000 and 11000 BC (p 147) Jamaca isd not volcanic, but it experienced massive earthquakes which collapsed a large part of its cave system and tuned the collapsed areas into "Valleys"
Iceland is covered with late-Pleistocene lava flows thought to date to 8000-9000 BC. The Westmann Islands were built up in eruptions of that age and lay quiescent  for 6000 years or more after that, until the building up of the recent volcanic island Surtsey.
Mount Baker began in a series of eruptions starting about 8300 BC and continuing up to about 6000 BC. Mount Ranier experienced a major eruption which blew away half of its original mass and generated large mudflows at about the same time (p 592)    Mount St Helens erupted several times in succession at this time, and has interbedded lava flows with glacial deposit layers (p 547). Mount Newberry in Oregon had a great eruption at about 7000 BC (Frederick Johnson in "Radiocarbon Dating", 1951)
And besides the eruptions at the Azores, there were apparently other erutptions of the Canary Islands , including periods of submergence into the ocean and subsequent re-emergence, plus possible eruptions in the mid-Sahara and possibly elsewhere in Eastern Africa.

Volcanic Ash bed in Alaska of Younger Dryas age. Volcanic eruptions in Kamchitka and Japan, and even Mount St Helens, were contemporaneous with these beds and Hibben had mentioned that such volcanic traces mark the faunal zone where the extinction of the mammoths occured. This would be the level where the numerous frozen mammoths, bison and other creatures are found in Alaska and Siberia: there are similar mass killings of mammoths and mastodons south of the Continental icesheets, notably in New York state, but the area did not remain permafrost and if any of the creatures were quick-frozen there, the area thawed out later and all of the corpses rotted over time. Best Wishes, Dale D.

Across The Younger Dryas Threshold

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.gr/search/label/Younger%20Dryas

Across The Younger Dryas Threshold

The maps above illustrate the changes from the milder interglacial conditions before the Younger Dryas and then during the Younger Dryas. The most obvious change is that the entire firested region of Northern Europe has been levelled flat and forests only cling to more mountainous regions in Southern Europe. Strata of that time do also explicitely contain the indications for the felled forests. The felled forests in both Europe and Noth America bear witness to enormous tsunamis crashing across the continents and subsequent flooding of all the low-lying districts. Below are the maps for the comparable periods in North America. For the Younger Dryas, I have altered the second map to reflect other information I have that there was also a deforestation event in the Deep South, accompanied by more saline soils, and that the newer forests were at first of a drier climate scrub and then rapidly replaced by swampy growth. The nascent icefree corridor also closed up again.

Both of thes maps are unadjusted C14 dates reflecting the problems involved in dating these periods. You will commonly find corrected dates as being two thousand years older, or more.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044580398000163
Calcolithic Coppers of Peru J.A. Pero-Sanz*, J. Asensio†, J.I. Verdeja†, J.P. Sancho† * Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, E.T.S.I. de Minas, 28003 Madrid, Spain † Universidad de Oviedo, E.T.S.I. de Minas, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
[The chart has been amended to allow for the new finds of copper use in the oldest Holocene in coastal Peru, mentioned in an earlier posting to this blog. This makes the oldest copper use in the New World traceable to the oldest Holocene in both Eastern North America and in coastal Perue survivals from the older Archaic establishment of what Donnelly called the Atlantean American Empire ancate about the same geographical area]

Mesolithic inhabitants of Europe shown on rock art as wearing feathered headgear and wearing loincloths and leggings a arrows. They have cattle and goats and they could also be herding deer: and they are aided by shepard dogs that bear a resemblance to our German shepards (see blowup below)

The Mesolithic European settlers, men above and women below. The men are marching off to war and the women are dancing in a religious ritual. The women are often called "Witches" in this scene

This is the physical type basic to both the European Mesolithics (Azilians and Capsians) and to the American Archaics, the Iswanids of Neumann, close to the Arawak type.

Mesolithic Europeans surviving the Younger Dryas, a lot like the Native Americans at the same time across the Atlantic Ocean. Bows and Arrows were introduced early on in Archaic times in North America, but fell out of favour and had to be re-introduced again mych more recently.

Neolithic groups of Europe. The Atlantic bunch is distinguished as using varieties of Cardial and Impresso ware: these are very similar to the older types of North Africa and entered into the area through Sicily and Malta (not indicated on this map)-the hows up in Palestine but it obviosly derives from the West when it does (it is intrusive there and more highly developed, and older, in the West).

http://www.proto-english.org/o1.html

A CONTINENTAL ORIGIN

Simplified recolonisation of Europe by hunter-gatherers according to Dr. Oppenheimer.

The Ice Age ended with the beginning of the Younger Dryas Age (12000 - 8000 BC) [1].

But the Ice Age actually ended in two steps: the first warming happened around 12000 BC, the second one, one can call this one 'the real warming', around 8000 BC and is called the Holocene. We still do live in the Holocene period. The Younger Dryas was still cold and dry. Bordeaux had then the same climate as Stockholm today. As a consequence the ice melted in two stages.

Previously, the north of Europe was simply too cold to be inhabited by the Cro-Magnon man, a human species of tropical origin. Actually, this Cro-Magnon man (we!) could cope with the cold, but it was the absence of wild game on the ice plains that was impossible to overcome. We can assume that there was some human presence in Britain 15000 years ago, but the numbers must have been negligible and seasonal. With the start of the Younger-Dryas came the first stage of ice melting and much of Europe became far more accessible for humans, although the climate was still cold. The second, final stage would happen when the Younger Dryas (9000 - 8200 BC) ended and the Holocene period began (since 8000 BC).

According to Dr. Oppenheimer, it was at the beginning of the Younger Dryas period that Europe was colonized from Ice Age refuges. He called people in the northern Spain refuge Ruisko. Ruisko colonized mainly the regions next to the Atlantic coast.The refuges in Croatia (called Ivan) and in southern Russia (called Rostov) colonized most of the Continent itself. All genes became eventually unevenly mixed. E.g. Britain is more Ruisko, Germany is more Ivan and Rostov.

The first wave of humans who came from Ice Age refuges Ivan and Rostov spoke a language which was the earliest form of PIE [2]. To give it a name: we call it Maglemosian. The location of the origin of the PIE language on the map is deceiving: the language was spoken by a tribe that lived on the coasts of the Black Sea. Dr. Oppenheimer found typical Ivan-genes in Serbia and typical Rostov-genes in southern Russia, but that does not mean that these genes were originally from there. What we know is that the genes remained more concentrated there.

Language evolution

Maglemosian was carried by people who genetically resembled people from the Ivan or Rostov refuges respectively in Serbia and in south Russia. In the west and northwest a different language was spoken: Azelian, which might be a parent of Basque. Both Azelian and Maglemosian were the most important languages in western Europe. Not in numbers of native speakers, but in surface. The languages evolved and unified regionally because of the annual migrations and the winter gatherings for maybe 4000 years.

At the beginning of the Holocene, the last big warming up of about 8000 BC, the opposite happened: migrations stopped and the languages diversified, more strong dialects appeared. Three major groups had emerged in western Europe: (1) Azilian in west Britain, France and Spain (Atlantic coast), (2) Maglemosian in Germany and Scandinavia, (3) Various non-PIE languages settled probably in northern Italy and southeast France at first. Only Maglemosian had connections with PIE.

Azilian is a name given by archaeologists to an industry of the Epipaleolithic in northern Spain and southern France. It probably dates to the period of the Allerød Oscillation around 10,000 years ago (10,000 BC uncalibrated) and followed the Magdalenian culture. Archaeologists think the Azilian represents the tail end of the Magdalenian as the warming climate brought about changes in human behaviour in the area. The effects of melting ice sheets would have diminished the food supply and probably impoverished the previously well-fed Magdalenian manufacturers. As a result, Azilian tools and art were cruder and less expansive than their Ice Age predecessors - or simply different. (Wikipedia)
Maglemosian (ca. 9500 BC–6000 BC) is the name given to a culture of the early Epipaleolithic period in Northern Europe. In Scandinavia, the culture is succeeded by the Kongemose culture.

Seasonal migrations

Our story takes place circa 11 000 years ago (Younger Dryas - see picture above). It is winter and very cold. Look at the map hereunder. There is an ice cap over most of Scandinavia. Europe is covered with a forest-steppe (in pink), which is a mixture of patches of trees (a few birch and pine) and a lot of grassland. The more to the north, the less trees there are (tundra-steppe). The yellow area represents a dry steppe, mostly void of trees. Purple represents woodland. The sea level is much lower than today. Britain is a part of the continent. The first deciduous trees appear only in the far south of France and in Spain.

Seasonal migrations of the Azelian and Maglemosian tribes. Maglemosian could be related to a precursor of the Proto-Indo-European language. Azelian, Basque (possible original spread) and Etruscan are non-Proto-Indo-European languages.

[Please note that the ProtoIndoEuropean territory did actually include parts of Greece. I do identiify them astthe "Athenians" of Plato-DD]
Big animals need a lot of grass. A steppe is covered with grass. The conditions are ideal for big migrating herds of European wisent (=bison), deer, etc. This meant enough food for the humans, and a subsequent growth of their population.

The Maglemosianshad their winter quarter in (modern) Bavaria, the south of Germany, where the wild herds sheltered. These herds were blocked there on their way south because of the ice cap over the Alps and the Rhine in the west. Estimated human population: 50 000-60 000. They spoke an ancestor of PIE called Maglemosian. From time to time, new proto-PIE speaking people migrated from the shores of the Black Sea to south Germany.

The Azilians stayed in (modern) southwest France for similar reasons. Their origins must be searched in the north of Spain and south of France. Estimated population: 80 000-90 000 souls. In the north, close to the ice-cap, were some 5000-6000 proto-Scandinavians. Their lifestyle resembled that of the modern Inuit (Eskimos).

Azelian is the supposed language of the people practising the Azilian culture (actually : pottery style). I use Azelian for the language in analogy to the changed vowels in France and French. The Azilian period does not correspond perfectly with the period we discuss here. The supposed Azelian language period stretches from 8000 to 4000 BC, much longer than the cultural period. But I found it a nice name. This remark is also valid for Maglemosian.

[Note: populations fell generally at the onset of the Younger Dryas, in some places by at least half the population lost. The Western European seaboard, by contrast, seems to have swollen half again or double the population due to the influx of refugee populations spreading inland through Spain-DD]
Spring came late to the barren land. In May the herds began to travel north. Herds travel much faster than humans can follow (on foot). The humans prepared themselves to go to their summer quarters, also in the north. They were organized in small clans, on average some 25-35 people; 4 up to 7 adult men, some elderly people and the rest were women, children and babies. Each clan had a well-known summer territory, inherited for many generations.

A fixed summer territory had many advantages.
(1) Mankind is very territorial. The reason is simple: it's all about food. The size of such a territory had to be just big enough (= enough game). It was determined by experience. Too big meant too much competition with other clans.
(2) It avoided yearly disputes and the occasional casualties.
(3) Each clan knew exactly where to go, was able to prepare for the voyage, knew what dangers lay ahead, how to overcome obstacles, etc.
(4) It allowed more investment in the local huts or shelters. In some places mammoth tusks were collected to build those huts. Mammoth tusks are very heavy. Sometimes they had to be carried by at least 2 men over kilometres. Not something you would do for just one summer. Wood was scarce in the steppe and needed for fuel. Such huts have been found.
(5) Efficient hunting depends upon a good knowledge of the territory. This knowledge was acquired over the years.

Some clans would have to travel for one month. As the good season lasts only 5 months, including one month to go and one month to come back, thus remain 3 months to stay. Not much. Going further north would narrow the season too much. The summer is normally a time of plenty, and fattening up for the next winter is what you would do. So, some time is needed. In spring the Azelians spread all over France from the south. Some clans reached their northern limit : Belgium, at the maximum reasonable distance from South-France, some 750 km. That meant an average of 25 km a day on foot during a month. Arduous, especially for elder or very young people. The proto-Germans did the same and some ended up near the border of Denmark, a very similar distance. Of course, there were no roads. However, there was another way to reach the North. By boat.Technology around 10 000 BC was comparable with that of Canadian Indians just before the white man came. People could make boats, large canoes probably made of hide, would be available. Those boat types are still made by the Eskimos, and are surprisingly strong in icy conditions. The Welsh word for such boats is currach. The English version of the word is coracle. Today, coracles are (very) small and often completely round while currachs are elongated and much bigger, but they are both really the same word. With those currachs the Azelian peoples could travel north by sea. This way of voyaging is much more comfortable and quicker than walking. They followed the coast to the north, and colonized the complete west of the British Isles. 

The Maglemosian people had a similar technology, and used the Rhine, but also the Weser and Elbe. They followed the rivers to the north and colonized the riverbanks. That's how Alsace became German.

Where the Rhine merged with other rivers in what would become the North Sea, Maglemosian people found the place already occupied by Azelian speaking tribes.