Holocene Impact Working Group

The Holocene Impact Working Group is a group of scientists from Australia, France, Ireland, Russia and the USA who hypothesise that meteorite impacts on Earth are more common than previously supposed.

The group posits one large impact (equivalent to a 10-megaton bomb) every 1,000 years. Ths estimate is based on evidence of five to ten large impact events in the last 10,000 years. Satellite observations suggest the presence of many recent impact craters and landforms such as chevrons which are thought to have been caused by megatsunamis. The chevrons often point in the direction of specific impact craters, the supposition being that the chevrons were deposited by tsunamis originating from the impacts which formed those craters.

A prime example the group cites is the impact event named Burckle crater located off the coasts of Australia and Madagascar. This seminal event is both recent and relatively large in the earths geologic time scale. As one of the cited events, the group indicates much more frequent impact events contrary to other research group frequency analysis results. If such a frequency proves out, then large impacts may show that efforts of the B612 Foundation become apparently critical considering known history of Tunguska event and others less clearly determined sizeable enough to damage civilization.

The group states that their hypothesis is likely to be controversial: "I wouldn't expect 99.9 per cent of (the scientific community) to agree with us" [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1788687.htm] Their work is controversial because it contradicts much of what is understood about impacts and tsunamis.

Group Members:
*Associate Professor Ted Bryant, geomorphologist, Wollongong University, Australia
*Dallas Abbott, research scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York
*Slava Gusiakov, Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory, Russia
*Marie-Agnès Courty, soil scientist, European Center for Prehistoric Research, Tautavel, France
*Dee Breger, director of microscopy, Drexel University, Philadelphia
*Bruce Masse, environmental archaeologist, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

References

ee also

* B612 Foundation
* Burckle crater
* Impact event
* Holocene
* Tunguska event

External links

* [http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061114/news_1n14meteors.html Meteor 'misfits' find proof in sea] Impacts more recent and often, researchers say
* [http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2006AM/finalprogram/abstract_114274.htm Impact Craters as Sources of Megatsunami Generated Chevron Dunes]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1788687.htm Transcript of ABC interview with Ted Bryant]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/science/14WAVE.html?8dpc "New York Times" "Ancient Crash, Epic Wave" (11.14.06) - Requires login/account]
* [http://library.lanl.gov/tsunami/213/scheff.pdf Chevron-shaped Accumulations Along the Coastlines of Australia as Potential Tsunami Evidences?] Science of Tsunami Hazards (2003), Vol. 21, #3, p 174.
* [http://www.chiemgau-impact.com/artikel2.pdf The Holocene Tüttensee meteorite impact crater] ] in southeast Germany

*Pinter, N., and S.E. Ishman, 2008, [http://www.gsajournals.org/archive/1052-5173/18/1/pdf/i1052-5173-18-1-37.pdf "Impacts, mega-tsunami, and other extraordinary claims" PDF version, 304 KB] . GSA Today. vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 37-38.