Meteorites and asteroids can have a strong effect on the state of our planet, especially large ones can even cause a deviation from the Earth's axis of rotation by tenths of a degree, which is quite a lot by geological standards. The last such significant fall was the Chiksulubsky meteorite about 65 million years ago.
The consequences of a meteorite fall depend not only on its size, but also on the speed, composition, angle of incidence and the place of landing - land or ocean. The problem is that there is no direct evidence of the impact of meteorites on the life of civilizations, because in most cases it is very difficult to establish the exact consequences - tsunamis, earthquakes, atmospheric smoke can be caused by other reasons. Only craters serve as reliable evidence of the fall of meteorites, the rest of the scientists are forced to study using unproven hypotheses. Therefore, the considered example will be more an assumption than a statement of fact.
Clovis culture
There is a theory that the disappearance of the Clovis people, who lived in North and Central America about 14 thousand years ago, is associated with the fall of a meteorite. They disappeared about 12.8 thousand years ago, at the same time, 35 species of animals that were hunted by people became extinct. By this time, a sharp cold snap, called the Late Dryas, was timed.
One of the theories explaining such a sharp cooling is the fall of a meteorite, although the crater was never found. In 2012, the US National Academy of Sciences published work on the study of sediments from Lake Cuitseo, located in Mexico. Analysis of the ten-meter layer of lake sediments confirmed the fall of the meteorite. The dating of these deposits just indicate the era of the late Dryas. However, there are opponents of these conclusions, who point to a misinterpretation and the lack of one evidence to conclude that it was this meteorite (if it was) that caused a wave of cooling and extinction of animals.
Nevertheless, this version has not been finally refuted. A chemical analysis of soils was carried out at archaeological sites dated to the Late Dryas. The research was carried out in the USA. In 8 of the 11 sites that were studied, the concentration of platinum in the soil layer formed during the Dryas, the concentration of platinum was 12 times higher than in adjacent layers. Interestingly, platinum is rarely found in the earth's crust, but is often present in asteroids, meteorites, and comets. So the mystery of the disappearance of the Clovis culture and the meteorite's involvement in this has not been fully solved.
GAVRILOVA DIANA
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