Discovery of Younger Dryas Boundary spherules leads to Comet Research Group. Allen West discovered a paper by Rick Firestone and Bill Topping documenting a layer of spherules first found in Michigan and then in the western United States. Ted Bunch, a retired NASA scientist who worked on moon rocks and helped the Alvarez team discover the KPG (Chicxulub) impactor, analyzed the spherules and concluded they were unusual. Dr. Wendy Wolbach found extreme high-temperature soot in the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) layer identical to that in the KPG boundary layer, with no similar material above or below it.
Allen West found a paper by Rick Firestone and Bill Topping about dust-sized spherules across the U.S. Retired NASA scientist Ted Bunch, who'd helped discover the Chicxulub impactor, found them unusual. Dr. Wendy Wolbach then identified extreme high-temperature soot in the Younger Dryas Boundary — identical to KPG boundary material and absent elsewhere.
Key Facts
- Allen West discovered a paper by Rick Firestone and Bill Topping documenting a layer of spherules first found in Michigan and then in the western United States.
- Ted Bunch, a retired NASA scientist who worked on moon rocks and helped the Alvarez team discover the KPG (Chicxulub) impactor, analyzed the spherules and concluded they were unusual.
- Dr. Wendy Wolbach found extreme high-temperature soot in the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) layer identical to that in the KPG boundary layer, with no similar material above or below it.
- The spherules are the size of a grain of dust and resemble ball bearings.
Related site: Cuddie Springs — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: A Comet, a Cover-Up, and a Crater in Greenland, ft CRG’s Allen West by The Cosmic Summit