The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture

This book is about the "Event" that took place about 12,000 years ago that is recorded in myth and legend variously as the Fall of Atlantis and Noah's Flood. Plato describes a destruction that occurred in a day and a night, and the Bible recounts the story of torrential rains and an immense flood in which most of the life on earth perished. There is also a rich body of Native American literature about a worldwide cataclysm of fires, followed by floods and death raining down from the skies. As many as fifty different cultures around the globe record versions of this story, and physicist Firestone, along with his geologist co-authors, have put together a book, based on hard scientific evidence, describing a cosmic chain of events that they believe culminated in the global catastrophe of circa 12,000 years ago. They believe that the Event was triggered by a nearby supernova that occurred 41,000 years ago.Firestone et al propose that we are still traversing an "extinction cycle" related to that event and that may very well be so, but it may also be true that there is more to the matter.On March 13, 2005, the UK Observer published an article entitled "Bad news - we are way past our 'extinct by' date" which tells us:"After analysing the eradication of millions of ancient species, scientists have found that a mass extinction is due any moment now."Their research has shown that every 62 million years - plus or minus 3m years - creatures are wiped from the planet's surface in massive numbers. Even worse, scientists have no idea about its source."'There is no doubting the existence of this cycle of mass extinctions every 62m years. It is very, very clear from analysis of fossil records,' said Professor James Kirchner, of the University of California, Berkeley. 'Unfortunately, we are all completely baffled about the cause.'"This part of the article is actually quite disingenuous. It is well known that there are other major extinctions and the cycle is not ONLY every 62 million years! There is also a very strong signal for a 26 million year extinction cycle. The different estimates of the number of major mass extinctions in the last 540 million years are due mainly to what the individual researcher chooses as the threshold for naming an extinction event as "major" as well as what set of data he selects as the determinant measure of past diversity. As it happens, the 62 million event data stems mainly from marine fossil evidence. The article goes on to say:"But what is responsible? Here, researchers ran into problems. They considered the passage of the solar system through gas clouds that permeate the galaxy. These clouds could trigger climatic mayhem. However, there is no known mechanism to explain why the passage might occur only every 62m years."Alternatively, the Sun may possess an undiscovered companion star. It could approach the Sun every 62m years, dislodging comets from the outer solar system and propelling them towards Earth. Such a companion star has never been observed, however, and in any case such a lengthy orbit would be unstable, Muller says."Or perhaps some internal geophysical cycle triggers massive volcanic activity every 62m years, Muller and Rohde wondered. Plumes from these would surround the planet and lead to a devastating drop in temperature that would freeze most creatures to death."Unfortunately, scientists know of no such geological cycle."'We have tried everything we can think of to find an explanation for these weird cycles of biodiversity and extinction,' Muller said. 'So far we have failed."The fact is, the above article doesn't even mention the Pleistocene extinction which is the subject of "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes," yet a mountain of evidence points to the fact that this extinction was global and catastrophic.Paleontologist George G. Simpson considers the extinction of the Pleistocene horse in North America to be one of the most mysterious episodes in zoological history, confessing, "no one knows the answer." He is also honest enough to admit that there is the larger problem of the extinction of many other species in America at the same time. [Simpson, George G., Horses, New York: Oxford University Press) 1961] The horse, giant tortoises living in the Caribbean, the giant sloth, the saber-toothed tiger, the glyptodont and toxodon. These were all tropical animals. These creatures didn't die because of the "gradual onset" of an ice age, "unless one is willing to postulate freezing temperatures across the equator, such an explanation clearly begs the question." [Martin, P. S. & Guilday, J. E., "Bestiary for Pleistocene Biologists", Pleistocene Extinction, Yale University, 1967]Massive piles of mastodon and saber-toothed tiger bones were discovered in Florida. [Valentine, quoted by Berlitz, Charles, The Mystery of Atlantis (New York, 1969)] Mastodons, toxodons, giant sloths and other animals were found in Venezuela quick-frozen in mountain glaciers. Woolly rhinoceros, giant armadillos, giant beavers, giant jaguars, ground sloths, antelopes and scores of other entire species were all totally wiped out at the same time, at the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12000 years ago.This event was global. The mammoths of Siberia became extinct at the same time as the giant rhinoceros of Europe; the mastodons of Alaska, the bison of Siberia, the Asian elephants and the American camels. It is obvious that the cause of these extinctions must be common to both hemispheres, and that it was not gradual. A "uniformitarian glaciation" would not have caused extinctions because the various animals would have simply migrated to better pasture. What is seen is a surprising event of uncontrolled violence. [Leonard, R. Cedric, Appendix A in "A Geological Study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge", Special Paper No. 1 ( Bethany: Cowen Publishing 1979)] In other words, 12000 years ago, something terrible happened - so terrible that life on earth was nearly wiped out in a single day.Harold P. Lippman admits that the magnitude of fossils and tusks encased in the Siberian permafrost present an "insuperable difficulty" to the theory of uniformitarianism, since no gradual process can result in the preservation of tens of thousands of tusks and whole individuals, "even if they died in winter." [Lippman, Harold E., "Frozen Mammoths", Physical Geology, (New York 1969)] Especially when many of these individuals have undigested grasses and leaves in their belly. Pleistocene geologist William R. Farrand of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, who is opposed to catastrophism in any form, states: "Sudden death is indicated by the robust condition of the animals and their full stomachs ... the animals were robust and healthy when they died." [Farrand, William R., "Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology", Science, Vol.133, No. 3455, March 17, 1961] Unfortunately, in spite of this admission, this poor guy seems to have been incapable of facing the reality of worldwide catastrophe represented by the millions of bones deposited all over this planet right at the end of the Pleistocene. Hibben sums up the situation in a single statement: "The Pleistocene period ended in death. This was no ordinary extinction of a vague geological period, which fizzled to an uncertain end. This death was catastrophic and all inclusive." [Hibben, op. cit.]This is the event that Firestone, West and Warwick-Smith discuss in their book, The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization. They suggest that, as a result of the above mentioned supernova, Planet Earth encountered a massive "swarm" of cometary bodies that nearly destroyed every living thing on Earth about 12000 years ago. They write: "Until recently, the astronomical mainstream was highly critical of Clube and Napier's giant comet hypothesis. However, the crash of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994 has led to a change in attitudes. The comet, watched by the world's observatories, was seen split into 20 pieces and slam into different parts of the planet over a period of several days. A similar impact on Earth, it hardly needs saying, would have been devastating." [...]"In 1990, Victor Clube, an astrophysicist, and Bill Napier, an astronomer, published The Cosmic Winter, a book in which they describe performing orbital analyses of several of the meteor showers that hit Earth every year. Using sophisticated computer software, they carefully looked backward for thousands of years, tracing the orbits of comets, asteroids, and meteor showers until they uncovered something astounding. Many meteor showers are related to one another, such as the Taurids, Perseids, Piscids, and Orionids. In addition, some very large cosmic objects are related: the comets Encke and Rudnicki, the asteroids Oljato, Hephaistos, and about 100 others. Every one of those 100-plus cosmic bodies is at least a half-mile in diameter and some are miles wide. And what do they have in common? According to those scientists, every one is the offspring of the same massive comet that first entered our system less than 20,000 years ago! Clube and Napier calculated that, to account for all the debris they found strewn throughout our solar system, the original comet had to have been enormous."So was this our megafauna killer? All the known facts fit. The comet may have ridden in on the supernova wave, [or was knocked into the solar system by the Companion Sun - LKJ] then gone into orbit around the sun less than 20,000 years ago; or, if it was already here, the supernova debris wave may have knocked it into an Earth-crossing orbit. Either way, any time we look up into the night sky at a beautiful, dazzling display of shooting stars, there is an ominous side to that beauty. We are very likely seeing the leftover debris from a monster comet that finished off 40 million animals 12 to 13,000 years ago."Clube and Napier also calculated that, because of subtle changes in the orbits of Earth and the remaining cosmic debris, Earth crosses through the densest part of the giant comet clouds about every 2 ,000 to 4,000 years [or 3,600 years?]. When we look at climate and ice-core records, we can see that pattern. For example the iridium, helium-3, nitrate, ammonium, and other key measurements seem to rise and fall in tandem, producing noticeable peaks around 18,000, 16,000, 13,000, 9,000, 5,000, and 2,000 years ago. In that pattern of peaks every 2,000 to 4,000 years, we may be seeing the "calling cards" of the returning megacomet."Fortunately, the oldest peaks were the heaviest bombardments, and things have been getting quieter since then, as the remains of the comet break up into even smaller pieces The danger is not past, however. Some of the remaining miles-wide pieces are big enough to do serious damage to our cities, climate, and global economy. Clube and Napier (1984) predicted that in the year 2000 and continuing for 400 years, Earth would enter another dangerous time in which the planet's changing orbit would bring us into a potential collision course with the densest parts of the clouds containing some very large debris. Twenty years after their prediction, we have just now moved into the danger zone. It is a widely accepted fact that some of those large objects are in Earth-crossing orbits at this very moment, and the only uncertainty is whether they will miss us, as is most likely, or whether they will crash into some part of our planet. [...] "We are years away from being able to control our own destiny as it relates to supernovae and giant comets and asteroids, but scientists are working on solutions. This is not a high priority with the world's governments, however, which typically prefer to confront terrestrial threats rather than cosmic ones. To prevent one of those giant objects from smashing into us, collectively, we spend about $10 to $20 million annually, an amount less than the cost of one or two sophisticated fighter jets. Almost no money is spent trying to detect imminent supernovae [or comets or asteroids]. "Our politicians are seriously underestimating these severe threats, which are capable of ending our species, just as they snuffed out the mammoths a mere 13,000 years ago, only an eyeblink in cosmic terms. There are few threats of that magnitude facing us today. The survival of the human race is not seriously threatened by the avian flu, Al Qaeda attacks, the end of the Age of Oil, monster hurricanes, giant earthquakes, or enormous tsunamis; if any of those occur, most of us will continue with our lives. Furthermore, nothing on that list is broadly accepted as having caused worldwide extinctions in the past. The same cannot be said about supernovae and massive [cometary] impacts. Those two cosmic events are implicated in many of the largest extinctions on our planet over the last millions of years. Fortunately, we survived them, but many of our fellow species did not. Humankind might not survive the next one. It seems reasonable to forgo several of our military fighter jets each year to decrease our chances of being" nuked" from space by a supernova or a comet."So, indeed, perhaps humanity has passed its "extinct by" date and, just as it was in the days of Noah... "They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all."

A Missing Link: Connecting God and Science© Edward J. Choinski 2011 Christian and Jewish scientists that believe in the Bible have often wrestled with the following conundrum: Science says that the "Big Bang" created the universe 14 billion years ago and that the oldest rocks of the earth have been dated as being formed 4 billion years ago. The earliest appearance of evolutionary mankind (Homo sapiens), determined from the fossil record, was about 200,000 years ago. But in the creation narrative of Genesis, however, the Bible[1], says; "In the beginning God created heaven and earth."[2], It also says; "God said, Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves..."[3], The beginning of creation, however, according to biblical scholars was around six thousand years ago. This dates God's creation of man in Genesis about 4,000 B.C. How then, can the facts of science be compatible with God's revealed truth in the Bible? The timelines of these two scenarios seem to be contradictory and should be mutually exclusive, that is one should be true and the other false. This is what I thought until I read a Boston Globe article titled, "Cosmic blast may have killed off mega fauna". It described a study done by Dr. Richard B. Firestone of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he presented evidence of a cosmic catastrophe that occurred on earth just 13,000 years ago. In his book, The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes[4], Dr. Firestone provides compelling scientific facts, which indicate that a barrage of icy comets exploded in the air over Canada. The largest comet crashed into the glacial ice-sheet, blasting a hole in the ice covering Hudson Bay with an explosion so massive, that it ended the existence of early mankind in North America, the Clovis people. "One dust ball comet was more than 300 miles wide; others were nearly as big."[5] This "Event", as he calls it, also showered comets over Lake Michigan, Siberia, Europe and parts of all the northern continents. According to his book, the impact created a blast of superheated air that created a bubble that pushed aside the atmosphere, temporarily depriving the earth of its protective shield. The enormous shock wave ejected fast moving grains that moved through the thin air at hundreds of miles per hour, like shrapnel striking both plants and animals. At the same time cosmic rays streamed unhindered through the empty bubbles bombarding the earth with deadly galactic radiation. The Event's seismic shock waves triggered earthquakes and awakened volcanoes all over the earth, releasing dust and noxious chemicals into the atmosphere. Massive wildfires raged over the earth and tons of ash and soot drifted high into the sky. Even the magnetic field of the earth was shaken. Landslides in the ocean triggered tsunamis that washed back and forth across the oceans devastating the coastlines. The massive amount of heat melted millions of tons of glacial ice, flooding the land and raising the sea levels, inundating low-lying areas. Underwater slides of mud, sand and gravel blocked the path of the Gulf Stream, redirecting the "ocean conveyor ". This caused temperatures to fall rapidly below freezing across North America, Canada and Europe, resulting in a devastating ice age, the Younger-Dryas cooling period that spread over the earth, gripping it for a thousand years. Reading and studying the data in Dr. Firestone's book, especially his vivid reconstruction of events "What Really Happened?"[6], is illuminating. It becomes evident, that this cataclysm and its deadly aftermath would have caused the immediate mass extinction of virtually all plants and animals on earth, including early mankind. The scientific evidence leaves little doubt that a pivotal event occurred 13,000 years ago. The question becomes:---Did evolutionary mankind survive the aftermath of this Event,---YES or NO? Before the discovery of DNA and genetics, the answer from science was a logical but un-scientific, YES, because we are here. Since the development of genetics, however, science has shown that the genetic make up of modern man's DNA can be traced back to early mankind. The scientific argument has now become YES, because the genetics are the same, evolutionary mankind must have survived. The other answer of NO, however, (is true), and much more powerful as it provides a "logical missing link that connects the truth of science to the truth of God". Using this link, the following scenario intends to illustrate how the timelines of science and the Bible can be brought together without contradiction, showing that "all truth is compatible". The creation narrative of Genesis in the Bible is true. In the beginning God did create heaven and earth, as evidenced by the Big Bang 14 billion years ago. God created the universe from "nothing", willing everything into existence, including the building blocks of life, which He designed to evolve from this primordial matter. Four billion years ago the earth formed from clumping cosmic matter. With earth's unique combination of atmosphere, water and cosmic location, life evolved. Plants and animals emerged and over a period of 4 billion years, all the fossil evidence we have including dinosaurs to Neanderthals was generated. Animals evolved that had high intelligence and awareness, those that we call early mankind. They looked like modern humans and had many human traits but lacked one thing necessary to be a human being, an "immortal soul". Then 13,000 years ago, catastrophe struck the earth with the Event that destroyed almost everything. It killed off plants, animals and most of early mankind shaped by evolution. The ice age that ensued for the next 1,000 years would eventually eradicate the weakened remnant of early mankind. But God did not abandon the creation He began with the Big Bang. He knew this catastrophe would occur as it happened several times before on earth. In His Own Plan, however, God would now renew the earth with a new creation of plants and animals, not by evolution over time, but directly by His Own Hand. Around 6,000 years ago, using the DNA He designed from the beginning to evolve into early mankind, "Yahweh God shaped man (from the soil of the ground) and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being."[7], "God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them."[8] God had a (new purpose) for Adam, the (new man) He created with a human body and a "spiritual soul", (in His own image and likeness). God wanted Adam and Eve to be happy with Him in heaven forever. All they had to do was to love God above all things, and to choose to obey Him with their "free will", instead of choosing themselves. The Genesis story continues, and another catastrophe hits mankind with the sin of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. God knew these human beings would fall, but in His eternal goodness and love for His new creation, God did not abandon mankind. He promised Adam and Eve a Redeemer. God the Father, in the fullness of time and from the depth of His Love, would send His only begotten Son to earth as a man. His divine Son could atone for mankind's offense against God and re-open the gates of heaven. God the Father was true to His promise, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man 2,011 years ago. In obedience to the Father and for our sake, Jesus fully accepted, to be crucified under Pontius Pilate, to suffer, die and be buried. He paid man's debt to God, and the gates of heaven were re-opened. On the third day after His death, Jesus rose from the dead in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. Today, 2011 A.D. mankind awaits the coming of the Lord. Since "all truth is compatible", everyone, including the scientists, should ask themselves: Will I be ready when God fulfills His promise in the last words of the Bible? "The one who attests to these things says: I am indeed coming soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen."[9][1] The New Jerusalem Bible New York: Doubleday, 1990[2] Gen 1:1[3] Gen 1:26[4] Firestone, R. B., et al. The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes Rochester, Vt.: Bear & Company, 2006[5] Ibid. 137[6] Ibid. 132[7] Gen 2:7[8] Gen 1:27[9] Rev 22:20-21

As a scientist I found it difficult to read this book. The author is world authority on the YDIH and I was looking forward to a good dose of science - akin to his seminal paper He uses a narrative style which totally ruined it for me. I wanted science not a novel The book is probably useful but I could not bring myself to read to the end. There are better books and articles out there ...

This book is a hugely thought provoking volume, which should be a must-read for undergraduates and post-graduates in the geo-sciences and cosmic sciences alike. It contains 35 chapters of mostly good stuff with 16 stunningly beautiful colour photos illustrations of cosmic phenomena relevant to the thesis of the book - that the beginnings of our modern age occurred about 13,000 years ago with a catastrophic loss of life in America that killed all the mammoths and other giant animals of the Late Pleistocene plains and tundra of N America.Its title, however, is hugely misleading!. Anyone like me, expecting a modern disposition on the story of the Five Ages of Man will be hugely disappointed. However, despite the totally inappropriate title, it is a book of considerable merit, because it breaks a lot of new ground.The book is in 3 parts, beginning with Part I, which is a well written and gripping detective tale about the search for evidence of a catastrophic event in North America at the end of the Clovis period, when the makers of the beautiful Clovis spear points of flint appear to have disappeared at the same time as the mammoths and other giant animals died en-masse. As the authors explore the Clovis sites, they discover that the terminal event is marked by traces of magnetic particles, glass particles, carbon and other rare elements such as Titanium, Cobalt, Chromium, Zinc, Uranium and Thorium -all of which point to an earth-impact event.Part II is a hugely irritating and premature outline of what happened. It would be better in revised form at the end of the book as a summary.Part III, from Chapters 12 -35 is a lengthy review of the Evidence, which is not so well written as Part I and its muddled presentation greatly detracts from the force of the authors case. For graduates and undergraduates alike it presents an interesting study as to how the evidence and arguments could be better presented. It has however a number of good points and strengths.A major part of Part III is devoted to finding the "smoking gun" - the impact crater in the region of the northern Great Plains that brought about the mass extinction of N America's giant animals. A great deal of space is devoted to finding and explaining secondary craters, such as the Carolina Bays and other shallow craters in the Mid West, and then to finding the primary craters in the region of the Great Lakes or Hudsons Bay, all of which is interesting stuff, although not wholly convincing.Other intriguing parts of the content of Part III are some 20 or more references to ancient accounts by Native American Indians and Asian And European peoples to catastrophic events in the memory of mankind. Unfortunately, the authors fail to recognise that these memories span the Five Ages of Man, with some events millions of years before the end-Clovis mass extinction in N America, which muddies the evidence somewhat.Nevertheless, there is much powerful evidence in Part III, especially geochemical evidence.Perhaps, the most intriguing aspect of the authors thesis is that the cosmic debris that the Earth encountered 13000 ybp came from a supernova explosion in the constellation of Gemini about 40,000 ybp, which is purported to have showered the Earth, initially in a storm of cosmic radiation, then a shock wave of lesser debris, then the heavier debris around 13,000 ybp. Some interesting evidence is given to support the proposition, but no specific evidence proving both the mechanism and the dates is forthcoming. The authors seemingly fail to recognise that all interstellar debris is the result of a supernova explosion somewhere at sometime.Nevertheless, despite its shortcomings, it is a most stimulating book, well suited to making students think critically on where to go next.

I am using this book to support my public lectures on how meteoritic impacts on the Earth's surface have not only controlled the evolution of life on its surface (eg the demise of the dinosaurs) but also provided useful mineral deposits (eg Sudbury astrobleme and its important nickel deposits). This book provides a wealth of evidence of how a much more recent impact event has shaped human civilisation.

The writer takes the reader on a journey as he uncovers probably the most important facts of our pre history. Nothing is taken for granted and where he does not have the technical knowledge he calls in others. The book contains a lot of facts but these are all part of reaching the sound conclusions. A must for all that ask questions of the last thirty thousand years.

Fascinating read and amazingly well researched and proven. Still reading it and just amazed at the information on our planets history and how they have worked this out.