The subject of my recent video on the threat of near earth objects was ironically hammered
home yesterday when a large meteorite fell in broad daylight in Cuba, causing detonations
and dropping apparently numerous meteorites on the western part of that island.
Detonations were reported along with broken glass, but no casualties, underscoring my
point that at any time small asteroids can and do enter the earth’s atmosphere, and
much larger impacts are possible.
Interestingly, this Cuban meteorite may be quite interesting in its own right, or not.
The photographs I’ve seen from people in Cuba on twitter show stones that do appear
to be of meteoritic origin, but it’s kind of an odd looking matrix, making me wonder
if this isn’t a common chondrite, but rather some kind of achondritic, heat altered material
or breccia.
The origins for most of these types of meteorites can sometimes be linked to having been blasted
off Mars, the Moon, the asteroid Vesta and in one case even the planet Mercury.
It will be interesting to see what the chemistry of this meteorite ends up being.
As an aside, there was also an impact on the moon during the recent lunar eclipse that
was caught by multiple cameras, and even live feeds of the event.
It wasn’t that impressive, being just a small almost instantaneous blip, but it’s
still a very rare event.
This was a small impact, but history does record what might have been the formation
of a known crater on the moon.
In 1178 English monks recorded a particularly harrowing account of the moon writing like
a snake and shooting out flames and coals.
We’ll likely never know what they saw, and it could have been a meteor entering earth’s
atmosphere head on in front of the moon from their perspective, but some researchers have
linked it to the formatikon of the crater Giordano Bruno on the moon.
But those aren’t the only recent developments in this field.
In December researchers released news that they may have found a 31 kilometer crater
locked under nearly a kilometer of ice in Greenland.
What’s noteworthy here is that this crater is recent, possibly within human prehistory,
and reignites a debate that’s been going about a cold snap that seems to have occured
between 12,800 and 11,700 years ago termed the younger dryas.
But not exactly as it was first laid out.
The original hypothesis regarding the younger dryas revolved around a small comet detonating
in the atmosphere and sparking wildfires, which in turned cooled the climate.
The new debate is now about whether this impact event might have been directly responsible.
This may be premature because the date of the newly found crater is not yet well constrained,
and could be as old as 2.6 million years, far too ancient to responsible for the Younger
Dryas, however there are other issues.
Whatever impacted in Greenland seems to have not been a comet, rather it seems to have
left anomalous traces of platinum, which would be more suggestive of an iron meteorite.
That kind of impact may not have been sufficient to cause the younger Dryas.
So the debate here is ongoing, and very likely to evolve is it continues.
As does another paper that came out at the end of the year.
This paper is one of those extraordinary evidence is required kinds of paper and I usually prefer
to sit and see what the people in the field say about it, though apparently multiple papers
on this event are pending.
It concerns an archeological site in Jordan, Tell el-Hammam, or what’s being called the
Middle Ghor event after the general region, and it seems to suggest that a meteorite impact
on the level of Tunguska may have happened in this area about 3,700 years ago.
Reportedly, this event wiped out everything within an estimated 200 square miles, and
even went so far as to damage important fertile agricultural land, apparently some of the
best in the region in those days, and even may have covered the area with superheated
salts from the dead sea.
This area was then apparently left uninhabited for an estimated five to seven hundred years.
These findings are very new, and no doubt debate will ensue … we’re very early in
the game on this one and actual fragments of the object would be helpful, and should
still be around in weathered condition in the area, but it does evoke interesting thoughts.
3,700 years is not that long ago and as with the issue of flood myths and questions of
the formation of the black sea show, perhaps long ago someone did see fire and something
like brimstone fall from the sky amid a great calamity.
Imagine how ancient peoples might have interpreted that.
Thanks for listening!
I am futurist and science fiction author John Michael Godier currently spooked that I made
a video about large meteorite falls and then a few days later one happened in my general
North American Vicinity.
Pro-tip, if you start a youtube channel talking about the mysteries of the universe and then
make an asteroid video, understand that the universe responds by throwing rocks in your
general direction.
Cranky, cranky universe and be sure to check out my books at your favorite online book
retailer and subscribe to my channel for regular, in-depth explorations into the interesting,
weird and unknown aspects of this amazing universe in which we live.