Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas boundary sediment layer.

We report abundant nanodiamonds in sediments dating to 12.9 +/- 0.1 thousand calendar years before the present at multiple locations across North America. Selected area electron diffraction patterns reveal two diamond allotropes in this boundary layer but not above or below that interval. Cubic diamonds form under high temperature-pressure regimes, and n-diamonds also require extraordinary conditions, well outside the range of Earth's typical surficial processes but common to cosmic impacts. N-diamond concentrations range from approximately 10 to 3700 parts per billion by weight, comparable to amounts found in known impact layers. These diamonds provide strong evidence for Earth's collision with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets at the onset of the Younger Dryas cool interval, producing multiple airbursts and possible surface impacts, with severe repercussions for plants, animals, and humans in North America.

Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling.

A carbon-rich black layer, dating to approximately 12.9 ka, has been previously identified at approximately 50 Clovis-age sites across North America and appears contemporaneous with the abrupt onset of Younger Dryas (YD) cooling. The in situ bones of extinct Pleistocene megafauna, along with Clovis tool assemblages, occur below this black layer but not within or above it. Causes for the extinctions, YD cooling, and termination of Clovis culture have long been controversial. In this paper, we provide evidence for an extraterrestrial (ET) impact event at approximately equal 12.9 ka, which we hypothesize caused abrupt environmental changes that contributed to YD cooling, major ecological reorganization, broad-scale extinctions, and rapid human behavioral shifts at the end of the Clovis Period. Clovis-age sites in North American are overlain by a thin, discrete layer with varying peak abundances of (i) magnetic grains with iridium, (ii) magnetic microspherules, (iii) charcoal, (iv) soot, (v) carbon spherules, (vi) glass-like carbon containing nanodiamonds, and (vii) fullerenes with ET helium, all of which are evidence for an ET impact and associated biomass burning at approximately 12.9 ka. This layer also extends throughout at least 15 Carolina Bays, which are unique, elliptical depressions, oriented to the northwest across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. We propose that one or more large, low-density ET objects exploded over northern North America, partially destabilizing the Laurentide Ice Sheet and triggering YD cooling. The shock wave, thermal pulse, and event-related environmental effects (e.g., extensive biomass burning and food limitations) contributed to end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and adaptive shifts among PaleoAmericans in North America.

Climatically driven emissions of hydrocarbons from marine sediments during deglaciation.

Marine hydrocarbon seepage emits oil and gas, including methane ( approximately 30 Tg of CH(4) per year), to the ocean and atmosphere. Sediments from the California margin contain preserved tar, primarily formed through hydrocarbon weathering at the sea surface. We present a record of variation in the abundance of tar in sediments for the past 32,000 years, providing evidence for increases in hydrocarbon emissions before and during Termination IA [16,000 years ago (16 ka) to 14 ka] and again over Termination IB (11-10 ka). Our study provides direct evidence for increased hydrocarbon seepage associated with deglacial warming through tar abundance in marine sediments, independent of previous geochemical proxies. Climate-sensitive gas hydrates may modulate thermogenic hydrocarbon seepage during deglaciation.

Thermal structure of the deep pacific ocean in the early pliocene.

The thermal structure of the Pacific Ocean between water depths of about 1 and 4.5 kilometers is estimated from the oxygen isotopic ratio of benthonic foraminifera from deep-drilled and piston cores of early Pliocene age (about 3 to 5 million years ago). The ratio of oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 in the early Pliocene at each site varies by an average of only +/- 0.12 per mil (1 standard deviation). A plot of the oxygen isotopic ratio against modern bottom-water temperature is adequately fit by a line having a slope of - 0.26 per mil per degree Celsius (the equilibrium temperature dependence of calcite-water fractionation), suggesting that the temperature gradient of the Pacific Ocean during the early Pliocene was similar to that of today.

Application of carbon isotope stratigraphy to late miocene shallow marine sediments, new zealand.

A distinct (0.5 per mil) carbon-13/carbon-12 isotopic shift in the light direction has been identified in a shallow marine sedimentary sequence of Late Miocene age at Blind River, New Zealand, and correlated with a similar shift in Late Miocene Deep Sea Drilling Project sequences throughout the Indo-Pacific. A dated piston core provides an age for the shift of 6.2 +/- 0.1 million years. Correlations based on the carbon isotopic change require a revision of the previously established magnetostratigraphy at Blind River. The carbon shift at Blind River occurs between 6.2 and 6.3 +/- 0.1 million years before present. A new chronology provides an age for the evolutionary first appearance datum of Globorotalia conomiozea at 6.1 +/- 0.1 million years, the beginning of a distinct latest Miocene cooling event associated with the Kapitean stage at 6.2 +/- 0.1 million years, and the beginning of a distinct shallowing of water depths at 6.1 +/- 0.1 million years. The Miocene-Pliocene boundary as recognized in New Zealand is now dated at 5.3 +/- 0.1 million years. Extension of carbon isotope stratigraphy to other shallow Late Miocene sequences should provide an important datum for international correlation of Late Miocene shallow and deep marine sequences.

Periodic freshwater flooding and stagnation of the eastern mediterranean sea during the late quaternary.

Major negative oxygen isotopic anomalies in planktonic foraminifera are associated with deep-sea anoxic mud layers (sapropels) deposited 9000 and 80,000 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean. The isotopic depletion in surface-dwelling foraminifera is significantly greater than in mesopelagic foraminifera. This difference in isotopic response suggests that surface-water salinities were drastically reduced during times of sapropel formation, possibly as the result of meltwater runoff from the Fennoscandian ice sheet into the eastern Mediterranean by way of the Black and Aegean seas.

Deep-sea erosion and manganese nodule development in the southeast Indian ocean.

Features exhibited by a large number of sea floor photographs together with the dating of 187 sediment cores from the southeast Indian Ocean have revealed extensive manganese nodule development and sediment erosion in deep basinal areas. The most extensive nodule field, with an area of 10(6) square kilometers, occurs in the northwestern sector of the South Australian Basin and is named the Southeast Indian Ocean Manganese Pavement. The crests and flanks of the adjacent mid-ocean ridge are, in contrast, free of nodules and marked by much less dynamic bottom water conditions.

Laurentide ice sheet meltwater recorded in gulf of Mexico deep-sea cores.

Oxygen isotopic measurements in three Late Quaternary deep-sea cores from the Gulf of Mexico record a major anomaly between about 15,000 and 12,000 years ago superimposed on a more characteristic oceanic oxygen isotopic curve. This resulted from major influx of isotopically light glacial meltwater via the Mississippi River from the disintegrating Late Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet 2000 kilometers to the north.

Global increase in quaternary explosive volcanism.

The worldwide distribution of volcanic ash has been determinmined from 320 deep-sea sections drilled during the Deep Sea Drilling Project. The ash distribution in the deep-sea sections, which span the last 20 million years, indicates that there has been a much higher rate of explosive volcanism from both island arc and hot spot volcanoes during the last 2 million years. This episode, and perhaps another in the Middle Miocene cprrelates with previously reported widespread synchronism in increased volcanicity in certain oceanic islands. Increased Quaternary volcanism coincides approximately with that episode of the Cenozoic marked by major and rapidly fluctuating climatic change.

Secondary Calcification of the Planktonic Foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma as a Climatic Index.

Oscillations in the ratio of two principal types of secondary calcification of the test surface in Neogloboquadrina pachyderma populations closely parallel paleoclimatic oscillations over the last 6 million years in a deep-sea core drilled in the temperate South Pacific. The nature of secondary calcification in fossil planktonic foraminifera represents a useful index in interpreting Cenozoic climates.

Development of the circum-antarctic current.

Deep-sea drilling in the Southern Ocean south of Australia and New Zealand shows that the Circum-Antarctic Current developed about 30 million years ago in the middle to late Oligocene when final separation occurred between Antarctica and the continental South Tasman Rise. Australia had commenced drifting northward from Antarctica 20 million years before this.

Antarctic Bottom Water: Major Change in Velocity during the Late Cenozoic between Australia and Antarctica.

Paleomagnetic and micropaleontological studies of deep-sea sedimentary cores between Australia and Antarctica define an extensive area centered in the south Tasman Basin, where sediment as old as Early Pliocene has been systematically eroded by bottom currents. This major sedimentary disconformity has been produced by a substantial increase in velocity of Antarctic bottom water, possibly associated with late Cenozoic climatic cooling and corresponding increased glaciation of Antarctica.

Paleomagnetic chronology of pliocene-early pleistocene climates and the plio-pleistocene boundary in new zealand.

The paleomagnetic chronology established for a Pliocene-Early Pleistocene sequence of marine sediments in New Zealand reveals that marked climatic coolings based on Foraminifera and oxygen isotope ratios in the late Cenozoic preceded the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, which is taken to be at the base of the Gilsá geomagnetic polarity event (1.79 million years ago). Major temperature fluctuations occur from the upper Gauss (Middle Pliocene) to middle Matuyama (Early Pleistocene). The first major Pliocene cooling spans the Gauss-Matuyama boundary (2.43 million years ago). A uniform and rapid (40 centimeters per 1000 years) rate of deposition is shown for the moderately shallow marine environment.

Antarctic Glaciation during the Tertiary Recorded in Sub-Antarctic Deep-Sea Cores.

Study of 18 Cenozoic South Pacific deep-sea cores indicates an association of glacially derived ice-rafted sands and relatively low planktonic foraminiferal diversity with cooling of the Southern Ocean during the Lower Eocene, upper Middle Eocene, and Oligocene. Increased species diversity and reduction or absence of ice-rafted sands in Lower and Middle Miocene cores indicate a warming trend that ended in the Upper Miocene. Antarctic continental glaciation appears to have prevailed throughout much of the Cenozoic.

Geomagnetic polarity change, volcanic maxima and faunal extinction in the South Pacific.

Studies of deep-sea sedimentary cores from Antarctic Pacific waters show that some volcanic maxima occurred when the geomagnetic polarity was changing. Upper mantle activity and geomagnetic polarity change may therefore be related. Coincidences of faunal extinction and geomagnetic polarity change may be explained by corresponding volcanically induced climatic changes.

Globorotalia truncatulinoides as a Paleo-oceanographic Index.

In Recent surface sediments of the ocean floor Globorotalia truncatulinoides (d'Orbigny) grades from highly conical forms in tropical areas to rather compressed forms in cold-water areas. An interdependence exists between temperature of the surface water and form ratios as defined by mean ratio of width to height and mean ratio of width to the height from keel to ventral extremity. Values of these ratios serve to identify various water masses and thus constitute a potentially useful method in determining paleo-temperatures in Quaternary marine sediments. Subpolar populations, as end members of the cline, are found only in the Southern Hemisphere.

Foraminiferal evidence of a shallow calcium carbonate solution boundary, ross sea, antarctica.

In the Ross Sea, Antarctica, distributions of calcareous Foraminifera and other calcareous microorganisms are dominantly controlled by a shallow calcium carbonate solution boundary that occurs at depths of about 500 meters. Possible causes of substantial undersaturation of Ross Sea bottom waters in calcium carbonate are very low temperatures and high salinities, which favor the solution of calcium carbonate and, possibly, high concentrations of carbon dioxide.