Open Veils · Answer
The reason for the younger dryas
The meltwater-AMOC hypothesis is a partial answer that sidesteps the most destabilizing question: what caused such an abrupt, catastrophic meltwater pulse in the first place? The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis — supported by a multinational research coalition — points to an extraterrestrial or cometary event over the Laurentide Ice Sheet around 12,900 BP as the trigger. Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock argue the full picture demands catastrophism, not gradualism.
Evidence
- The standard AMOC-disruption model, while internally consistent, is what Randall Carlson calls a 'second-order explanation' — it describes the mechanism of cooling but refuses to name the initiating cause.
- Graham Hancock, in 'Magicians of the Gods' and his collaboration with Randall Carlson on the Joe Rogan Experience, argues this impact event destroyed an advanced pre-flood civilization, correlating the YDB precisely with global mythological flood accounts.
- Paul LaViolette has separately proposed a galactic superwave — a burst of cosmic ray energy from the Galactic Center — as a contributing mechanism capable of triggering both the ice sheet destabilization and the global climate shock.
- The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH), championed by researchers including Allen West, James Kennett, and the Comet Research Group, proposes that a fragmented comet or bolide airburst over the North American ice sheet approximately 12,900 years ago generated the catastrophic meltwater pulse.
- Evidence cited includes a platinum-enriched 'black mat' layer, nanodiamonds, shocked quartz, microspherules, and elevated iridium at the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) — all consistent with an extraterrestrial impact — found at over 50 sites across four continents.