[meteorite-list] Newly Published Junk Science on Younger Dryas Impact

[oxytropidoceras at cox.net]

Dear Friends,

Dr. Firestone has outdid himself by publishing what is a rather 
wretched piece of junk science on the Younger Dryas impact in 
a new web "Journal". This paper is:

Firestone, R. B., 2009, The Case for the Younger Dryas
Extraterrestrial Impact Event: Mammoth, Megafauna, and Clovis 
Extinction, 12,900 Years Ago. Journal of Cosmology. vol. 2, 
pp. 256-285. 

http://journalofcosmology.com/Extinction105.html

I say that this paper is wretched because it shows a clear lack
of understanding of the published literature concerning various
aspects of geology and geomorphology For example, it completely 
confuses the playa lakes of the High Plains with the Carolina Bays.
He either ignore or overlooks data and ignoring the research,
including dating of these features, that has been conducted by Dr. 
Vance Holliday and others that completely refutes any association
between these lakes and the hypothesized Younger Dryas impact.

In addition, in this paper, Dr. Firestone, excluding the rather small
Charity Shoal feature whose age is still unknown, again claims 
without any credible evidence that there are major impact structures 
in the Great Lakes. This is based upon the unsupported and refutable
claim that glacial erosion is incapable of producing the deepest 
parts of the Great Lakes. No mention is made of the documented
fact that undisturbed glacial tills and lake sediments predating the 
Younger Dryas impact fill the lake bottom depressions, which Dr.
Firestone claims to Younger Dryas Impact craters.

In another case, Dr. Firestone dismisses out of hand, without any 
credible explanation, the OSL dates of Dr. Alexander Ivester of the
Carolina Bays as being the result of improper sampling. Having 
corresponded with Dr. Ivester I know that he was very, very careful 
in his sampling. The unsupported claims by Dr. Firestone of Dr.
Ivester engaging in careless sampling is not only entirely unfounded, 
but is a quite ignorant and completely undeserved insult on Dr. 
Ivester's ability as a very exacting Quaternary geologist and
 geochronologist. Dr. Ivester is very well trained in geomorphology
and Quaternary and was trained by one of the best Quaternary 
geologists in business in the Southeast, Dr. David Leigh. Also, if 
Dr. Firestone would look at the geologicalmaps of the Pleistocene 
terraces of the North Atlantic coastal plain, he would find that the 
Carolina Bays are only found on fluvial and coast-wise terraces that 
are older than Marine Isotope Stage 2, which readily refutes any 
claim that they formed by a much younger Younger Dryas impact.

All this paper will accomplish is cause geologists and Quaternary
geologists to ignore the serious research being conducted by other
scientists into the validity of Younger Dryas hypothesis. This paper
shows the same basic illiteracy in geology and geomorphology 
that characterizes "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a 
Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture."

Yours,

Paul H.