Background
12900 years ago, the current interglacial period was abruptly interrupted and the planet returned to the glacial temperatures for about 1000 years. This abrupt cooling period is called the "Younger Dryas" (named after a flower that is only found in tundra that is suddenly found in in Europe.)
At the start of the Younger Dryas period (12,900 BP) there is in numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere evidence in the geological record of burnt vegetation with a a set peculiar features. The authors of the paper I have copied below attributed the burnt vegetation to a comet or an astroid which burst in the atmosphere.
The data however seems to support the assertion that there was a very large movement of electrical charge movement from the ionosphere to the planet's surface. I would assume that the cause of a large charge movement from the ionosphere to the earth's surface is due to some unusual solar activity.
For example, see the appendix of the "Younger Dryas" paper, the paper notes (and includes aerial pictures) the finding in the geological record of a ½ million black residues, highly elliptically, 50m to 10 km in length, with axises that point in the North west direction, that are located in the region of eastern US, from New Jersey to Alabama, there is flash residue outside of the Canadian cities of Calgary and Edmonton, there is flash residue in the Great Lakes region in Michigan, in Arizona, there is flash residue in Great Britain, Netherlands, Germany, France, Demark, and Poland. The flashing evidence 12,900 years ago appears to be throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
I do not see how extra-terrestrial objects that burst in the atmosphere could possible explain these observations. An extra-terrestrial burst could only effect one region of North America. An extra-terrestrial burst could not possibly have left flash residue at 1/2 million sites from New Jersey to North Carolina. An extra-terrestrial burst could not have affected both North America and Europe. It seems that the evidence of overlapping residue indicates that was time delay between flashing events.
What are your thoughts as to extra-terrestrial impact hypothesis compared to the charge movement from the ionosphere to the earth?
P.S.
The other thing I find odd is there is evidence that this is a periodic occurrence.
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/41/16016/suppl/DC1#F7
The following are quotes from the paper:
"Chobot. Chobot is Southwest of Edmonton, AB, Canada. In Clovis times, it was located along the shore of a proglacial lake, where a supply of quality flint attracted hunter-gatherers. The presence of Clovis artifacts (5) dates this level to an interval of approx. 200 yr ending at 12,925 cal B.P. (6). The Clovis level is capped by the YDB layer, above which there is a black mat similar to other sites. The YDB sediment samples are mostly fine-grained and colluvial."
"Fig. 8. Lommel (1) is in northern Belgium, near the border with the Netherlands. At 12.94 ka (2), this site was a large late Glacial sand ridge covered by open forest at the northern edge of a marsh. ….Then, just before the Younger Dryas began, a thin layer of bleached sand was deposited and, in turn, was covered by the dark layer marked "YDB" above. That stratum is called the Usselo Horizon and is composed of fine to medium quartz sands rich in charcoal. The dark Usselo Horizon is stratigraphically equivalent to the YDB layer and contains a similar assemblage of impact markers (magnetic grains, magnetic microspherules, iridium, charcoal, and glass-like carbon). The magnetic grains have a high concentration of Ir (117 ppb), which is the highest value measured for all sites yet analyzed. On the other hand, YDB bulk sediment analyses reveal Ir values below the detection limit of 0.5 ppb, suggesting that the Ir carrier is in the magnetic grain fraction. The abundant charcoal in this black layer suggests widespread biomass burning. A similar layer of charcoal, found at many other sites in Europe, including the Netherlands (3), Great Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, and Poland (4), also dates to the onset of the Younger Dryas (12.9 ka) and, hence, correlates with the YDB layer in North America."
"Carolina Bays. The Carolina Bays are a group of approx. 500,000 highly elliptical and often overlapping depressions scattered throughout the Atlantic Coastal Plain from New Jersey to Alabama (see SI Fig. 7). They range from approx. 50 m to approx. 10 km in length (10) and are up to approx. 15 m deep with their parallel long axes oriented predominately to the northwest. ….YDB markers (magnetic grains, magnetic microspherules, Ir, charcoal, soot, glass-like carbon, nanodiamonds, carbon spherules, and fullerenes with 3He).
Fig. 7. Aerial photo (U.S. Geological Survey) of a cluster of elliptical and often overlapping Carolina Bays with raised rims in Bladen County, North Carolina. The Bays have been contrast-enhanced and selectively darkened for greater clarity. The largest Bays are several kilometers in length, and the overlapping cluster of them in the center is ≈8 km long. Previous researchers have proposed that the Bays are impact-related features.
This is the paper that discusses the impact theory and presents some of the geological data.
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/41/16016.full.pdf+html
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