Scientists have found proof of what exactly lead to the cooling of earth 12,000 years ago. Turns out, a territory in Quebec, Canada had seen cosmic bombardment approximately 12,900 years ago, which consequently lead to a drastic cooling of the temperature all around earth. This in turn affected animals and plants, making a large number of them extinct. It also impacted human beings, who had to adapt to these ever-changing conditions in order to survive.
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For years now scientists have known about this phenomenon, but up until now they couldn’t pinpoint exactly why this sudden temperature shift had occurred. Earlier scientists had other explanations they had come up with for this phenomenon, but now there is common consensus in the scientific community that a cosmic body is what caused it. Whether the cosmic body was a comet or a meteorite is not yet known.
The confirmation that it was a cosmic impact came to light, when at the area of the impact scientists recently found a drop of molten rock and diamond particles. Further analysis has revealed that the constitution of the rock that has been found isn’t consistent with the other rocks in that area. Scientists it seems have found such rocks even in parts of the US in areas like Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but in Canada these rocks have been found in much higher quantity, indicating it was the epicentre of the impact.
Interestingly, no impact crater has been found, which is something many expect, when such a phenomenon occurs, but scientists have an explanation as to why an impact crater is absent. Their argument is that the cosmic body probably exploded in the air instead of crashing into the earth’s surface hence there is no evidence of the impact. Professor Sharma of Dartmouth College, who has been researching this whole issue, confirmed that this was the impact that caused the extinction of animals like the mammoth and the mastodon.
In fact this sudden change in climate, also lead to the death of a large section of human race and also brought about a revolution in the way the remainder of mankind chose to survive thereafter. According to Professor Sharma, this event might have lead to human beings taking to farming instead of continuing with their lives as hunter-gatherers.
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