Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: meltwater pulses, nanodiamonds, platinum anomalies

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Key facts

• Firestone, Kennett, West, Howard and others published a 2007 paper reporting evidence of a cometary or asteroid impact at the start of the Younger Dryas, around 12,900 years ago
• The Younger Dryas is indicated by a rise of the polar-loving wildflower Dryas octopetala, first recorded in Europe in the 1800s after being known only from Spitsbergen inside the Arctic Circle
• Meltwater pulses are identified at 14,600 years ago and 11,060-11,070 years ago
• Greenland ice cores accumulate an annual layer, allowing annual counting back roughly the last 10,000-12,000 years
• Nanodiamonds are reported from the Younger Dryas boundary horizon, along with microspherules, magnetic grains and platinum, osmium and iridium isotopic anomalies
• The video claims nanodiamonds require pressures not produced by ordinary volcanism, and notes nanodiamonds were also produced by the Trinity atomic test in New Mexico, New Mexico
• The video says a Cambridge Greenland nanodiamond paper was criticised by Mark Boskovitch, and disputes the characterisation of missing physical ice cores

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