Günther Kletetschka - On the trail of a 13,000-year-old comet collision ****************************************************************************************** * Günther Kletetschka - On the trail of a 13,000-year-old comet collision ****************************************************************************************** Geophysicist Günther (Gin) Kletetschka [ URL "https://www.natur.cuni.cz/geologie/hydrogeol is a member of an international team of scientists on their way to confirming a hypothesis in the Ice Age was influenced by a collision with a cosmic object. Another piece in the pu the discovery of the catastrophe was published in March of this year in Scientific Reports www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w"] . If he had his way, Kletetschka would rather be aboard a ship sailing the seas off of Icela home in his attic office not far from Říčany outside of Prague, where he goes over availab to decipher what all of the numbers mean. Testimony in melted glass Evidence that “something strange” more than 12,000 years ago caused a rapid cooling of the was presented by scientists in North America and Mexico. Interesting findings in the form were even discovered in the Czech Republic’s Šumava forest. Scientists also managed years data from an area in Syria?. “Only now have we finally realised what the data from Abu Hur means,” the scientist from Charles University’s Faculty of Science admits. As the geophysi further, archaeological research in the area confirmed that due to enormous energy release the local temperature hit a fiery 2,200 degrees Celsius: Abu Hureyra literally melted. The impact left a mark on a local village and surroundings: vegetation, dwellings and pots ins melted. Glass with a very low proportion of water was found in a layer around 12,800 years characteristic of areas that have been exposed to enormous thermal energy. “With this discovery, we were able to shatter our hypothesis that this was only a local ph recently, glass with similar characteristics only came from North America. Gradually, howe joined by Chile, Africa and now Asia. This really looks like it was a global event,” Klete long studied glass and its magnetic properties, suggests. This is why his role on the scie compare the collected glass from individual locations and focus primarily on its magnetism Magnetism is the key “The magnetic properties of glass can tell a lot about its origin,” the scientist says. Fo glass which is produced by melting rock under a strong electric discharge (such as from li a magnetism so strong that it can’t be magnetised further; it’s practically magnetically s research into the Syrian glass, which I carried out at the magnetic laboratory of the Inst of the Academy of Sciences in Průhonice, showed that the glass is magnetically saturated a percent. In effect, we can rule out lightning as a cause,” he adds. What has Gin wondering– and he’s far from alone – is why no crater that should have been c supposed comet’s impact has never been found. There should be one – somewhere - confirming of a collision of an extraterrestrial object. “We have evidence of destruction, of the pre which are not normally found freely on Earth. But we’re missing is evidence of the cause.” What can we learn from the ocean floor? Kletetschka hopes to continue his research on board one of three ships from the US, Japan are “drilling” on the ocean floor as part of the International Ocean Drilling Program?. He join, despite being from the landlocked Czech Republic. “Every country with direct access scientists there. We don’t, so we aren’t represented: but the justification that we don’t no basis in logic,” he says, not hiding his disappointment. “Because sedimentation takes p in oceans, I’d like to get a sample of a core showing the period I’m researching. We’re ta that is around 13,000 years old.” Of all the places he’d most like to be at the moment is Iceland, where the fault line between the Eurasian and North American plates. “The fault-l European and American plates is very promising. From the point of view of my research, the of interesting phenomena caused by the movement of the oceanic crust, which has caused lar sediment in places south of the island. I believe that evidence covering the main part of could be found there.” A step closer via Syria Gin Kletetschka wants proof that impact from a comet was behind the melting of glass 12,80 if not a comet, then something else… but an answer nonetheless. “A series of published sci will always move us closer to the truth a bit,” the geophysicist says. The last place the explored is the important archaeological site of Abu Hureyra in northern Syria along the E “It’s the first time that a break or major adaptation in the living strategy of local inha be strongly observed: at the end of the last ice age they transitioned from hunting and ga agricultural way of life. I am in favour of the theory that this radical change was prompt natural disaster,” Günther Kletetschka says. He’s not alone in wanting to know what trigge climate cooling some 12,800 years ago and he’s not likely to rest until he is satisfied. Günther Kletetschka, Ph.D. ? works at the Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics at CU ? studied geophysics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at CU and geology and geoph ? At the CU Faculty of Science, at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of change, carbon nanotechnology, the magnetism of impact craters on Earth, the magnetism of temperatures ? he has also studied traces of the so-called Tunguska event in Siberia in 1908 ? In 2020, the team led by Dr. Richard Firestone at the prestigious Lawrence Berkeley Nati great cooling on Earth before the onset of the Holocene and at the same time the cause of a collision between an object from space and the Earth. Original article in Czech [ URL "https://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-16738.html"] Additional editing by Jan Velinger