Magicians of the Gods

by Graham Hancock

  66. Vic Baker, in an interview with John Soennichsen, Bretz’s Flood, op. cit., pp. 251–2.

  67. David Alt, Glacial Lake Missoula and its Humongous Floods, op. cit., p. 25.

  68. Thomas J. Crowley and Gerald R. North, Palaeoclimatology, Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 62.

  69. Lawrence Guy Strauss et al, Humans at the End of the Ice Age, Plenum Press, New York and London 1996, pp. 66 and 86. The Younger Dryas is explicitly a term for a European cold phase, although the phase itself was global. The same phase is thus sometimes referred to by different names in other places; but it is also a generic term and it is used as such here.

  70. Crowley and North, Paleoclimatology, op. cit., p. 63.

  71. Adams and Otte give date of start of Younger Dryas cold period as 12,800 and the end as 11,400 calendar years ago, Current Anthropology, 1999, vol. 40, pp. 73–7, see 73.

  72. Strauss et al, Humans at the End of the Ice Age, op. cit., p. 86.

  73. Graham Hancock, Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, Penguin, London, 2002, pp. 194–5.

  Chapter 4

  1. See, for example, US Geological Survey, “Columbia River Basalt Stratigraphy in the Pacific North West”: http://or.water.usgs.gov/projs_dir/crbg/.

  2. J Harlen Bretz, “The Channeled Scablands of the Columbia Plateau,” The Journal of Geology, Vol. 31 No. 8, op. cit., pp. 637–8.

  3. Ibid., p. 622.

  4. Randall Carlson: My Journey to Catastrophism, www.sacredgeometryinternational.com/journey-catastrophism.

  5. Ibid.

  6. All subsequent quotations from Randall Carlson in this chapter are from the interviews I conducted with him on our research trip in September–October 2014.

  7. These figures are confirmed by the New York State Geological Survey. See: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/nysgs/experience/sites/niagara/.

  8. Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, p. 71.

  9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chelan.

  10. See Eric Cheney, Floods, Flows, Faults, Glaciers, Gold and Gneisses, From Quincy to Chelan to Wenatchee, Northwest Geological Society, Fieldtrip Guidebook No. 24, 13–14 June 2009, p. 18. (http://www.nwgs.org/field_trip_guides/floods,_flows_faults.pdf). “Note the huge erratic of CRBG on the hillside above a house.” CRBG is an abbreviation for The Columbia River Basalt Group, a thick sequence of Miocene flood basalt that covered northern Oregon, eastern Washington, and western Idaho between 17 and 6 million years ago (http://or.water.usgs.gov/projs_dir/crbg/).

  11. http://www.wvc.edu/directory/departments/earthsciences/2014NAGT-PNWFieldTrips.pdf.

  12. Randall’s figure of 1,200 feet is confirmed in David K. Norman and Jaretta M. Roloff, “A Self-Guided Tour of the Geology of the Columbia River Gorge,” Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources, Open File Report 2004–7, March 2004, p. 3: “The flood crest at Wallula Gap on the Columbia River at the Washington-Oregon border was about 1,200 ft (365 m) as evidenced by glacial erratics that were left stranded on the hillside. The water poured down the Columbia Gorge and widened the valley by cleaning off all the soil and talus up to 1,000 ft (300 m) elevation as far as The Dalles, Oregon. By the time it reached Crown Point, the surface of the last flood had dropped to about 600 ft (180 m) elevation.”

  13. See discussion in Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods, op. cit., p. 46ff.

  Chapter 5

  1. Keenan Lee, “Catastrophic Flood Features at Camas Prairie, Montana,” Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, 2009, pp. 4 and 5.

  2. Ibid., p. 5.

  3. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” The Journal of Geology, Vol. 122, No. 5 (September 2014), pp. 475–505.

  4. See for example, http://phys.org/news/2014-08-year-old-nanodiamonds-multiple-continents.html, and “Wittke et al, Nanodiamonds and Carbon Spherules from Tunguska, the K/T Boundary, and the Younger Dryas Boundary Layer,” paper presented at the American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, 2009 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AGUFMPP31D1392W).

  5. Heather Pringle, New Scientist, 22 May 2007: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11909-did-a-comet-wipe-out-prehistoric-americans.html#.VJqZ88AgA.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. R.B. Firestone, A. West, J.P. Kennett et al, “Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling,” PNAS, Vol. 104, No. 41, 9 October 2007, p. 16016.

  12. Ibid., p. 16016.

  13. Ibid., p. 16020.

  14. The parallel is Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which broke up into multiple fragments that hit the planet Jupiter with spectacular effect in 1994.

  15. R.B. Firestone, A. West, J.P. Kennett, et al, “Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling,” op. cit, p. 16020.

  16. Ibid., p. 16020.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid., p. 16020–1.

  20. Ibid., p. 16021.

  21. Ibid., p. 16020.

  22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba.

  23. http://www.edwardmuller.com/right17.htm.

  24. D.J. Kennett, J.P. Kennett, G.J. West, J.M. Erlandson et al, in Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 27, Issues 27–28, December 2008, pp. 2530–45.

  25. Douglas J. Kennett, James P. Kennett, Allen West, James H. Wittke, Wendy S. Wolback et al, in PNAS, 4 August 2009, Vol. 106, No. 31, pp. 12623–8.

  26. Andrei Kurbatov, Paul A. Mayewski, Jorgen P. Steffenson et al, in Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 56, No. 199, 2010, pp. 749–59.

  27. W.M. Napier in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 405, Issue 3, 1 July 2010, pp. 1901–6. The complete paper can be read online here: http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/405/3/1901.full.pdf+html?sid=19fd6cae-61a0-45bd-827b-9f4eb877fd39, and downloaded as a pdf here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1003:0744.pdf.

  28. William C. Mahaney, David Krinsley, Volli Kalm in Sedimentary Geology 231 (2010), pp. 31–40.

  29. Mostafa Fayek, Lawrence M. Anovitz et al, in Earth and Planetary Science Letters 319–20, accepted 22 November 2011, available online 21 January 2012, pp. 251–8.

  30. Isabel Israde-Alcantara, James L. Bischoff, Gabriela Dominguez-Vasquez et al, in PNAS, 27 March 2012, Vol. 109, No. 13, pp. E738–47.

  31. Ted E. Bunch, Robert E. Hermes, Andrew T. Moore et al, in PNAS, June 2012, Vol. 109, No. 28, pp. E1903–12.

  32. Michail I. Petaev, Shichun Huang, Stein B. Jacobsen and Alan Zindler, in PNAS, 6 Aug 2013, Vol. 110, No. 32, pp. 12917–20.

  33. William C. Mahaney, Leslie Keiser, David Krinsley et al, in The Journal of Geology, Vol. 121, No. 4 (July 2013), pp. 309–25.

  34. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” op. cit., p. 475.

  35. Boslough, Daulton, Pinter et al, “Arguments and Evidence against a Younger Dryas Impact Event,” Climates, Landscapes and Civilizations, Geophysical Monograph Series 198, American Geophysical Union, 2012, p. 21.

  36. Nicholas Pinter, Andrew Scott, Tyrone Daulton et al, “The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis: A Requiem,” Earth-Science Reviews, Vol. 106, Issues 3–4, June 2011, pp. 247–64.

  37. Boslough, Daulton, Pinter et al, “Arguments and Evidence against a Younger Dryas Impact Event,” p. 21.

  38. James H. Wittke, James P. Kennett, Allen West, Richard Firestone et al, “Evidence for Deposition of 10 million tons of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 years ago,” PNAS, 4 June 2013, p. 2089.

  39. Ibid., p. 2089.

  40. Malcolm A. Le Compte, Albert C. Goodyear et al, “Independent Evaluation of Conflicting Microspherule Results from Different Investigation
s of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis,” PNAS, 30 October 2012, Vol. 109, No. 44, pp. E2960–9.

  41. Ibid., pp. E2960 and E2969.

  42. James H. Wittke, James P. Kennett, Allen West, Richard Firestone et al, “Evidence for Deposition of 10 million tons of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 years ago,” op. cit., p. 2089.

  43. Ibid., p. 2089.

  44. Ibid., p. 2088–9.

  45. Ibid., p. 2096.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Cited in Robert Kunzig, “Did a Comet Really Kill the Mammoths 12,900 years ago?” National Geographic, 10 September 2013 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130910-comet-impact-mammoths-climate-younger-dryas-quebec-science/).

  48. Ibid.

  49. Ibid.

  50. Cosmic Tusk, “In desperate hole, Pinter grabs a shovel”: http://cosmictusk.com/nicholas-pinter-southern-illinois/comment-page-2/.

  51. P. Thy, G. Willcox, G.H. Barfod, D.Q. Fuller, “Anthropogenic origin of siliceous scoria droplets from Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites in northern Syria,” Journal of Archaeological Science, 54 (2015), pp. 193–209.

  52. Ibid., p. 193.

  53. “Study casts doubt on Mammoth-Killing Cosmic Impact,” UC Davis News and Information, 6 January 2015: http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=11117.

  54. Personal correspondence between Graham Hancock and Allen West. Email West to Hancock dated 18 March 2015.

  55. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” op. cit.

  56. Ibid. See in particular pp. 477–8.

  57. Cited in Robert Kunzig, “Did a Comet Really Kill the Mammoths 12,900 years ago?,” National Geographic, 10 September 2013, op. cit.

  58. E.g. see Mark Boslough et al, “Faulty Protocols Yield Contaminated Samples, Unconfirmed Results,” PNAS, Vol. 110, No. 18, 30 April 2013, and response in the same issue by Malcolm A. LeCompte et al, “Reply to Boslough: Prior studies validating research are ignored.” See also Annelies van Hoesel et al, “Cosmic Impact or natural fires at the Allerod–Younger Dryas Bounday: A Matter of Dating and Calibration,” PNAS, Vol. 110, No. 41, 8 October 2013, and response in the same issue by James H. Wittke et al, “Reply to van Hoesel et al: Impact related Younger Dryas Boundary Nanodiamonds from The Netherlands.” See also David L. Meltzer et al, “Chronological evidence fails to support claim on an isochronous widespread layer of cosmic impact indicators dated to 12,800 years ago,” in PNAS, 12 May 2014. I am informed by Allen West (email from Allen West to Graham Hancock, dated 18 March 2015) that a response paper to Meltzer et al is under preparation by 27 co-authors, is provisionally entitled “Bayesian chronological analyses consistent with synchronous age of 12,820–12,740 cal BP for Younger Dryas Boundary on Four Continents” and will be submitted shortly. In the same email West notes that there is one point to add about the dating that is already in print (at 18 March 2015): “In the YDB layer, we have found high-temperature proxies, including nanodiamonds, one of a group of proxies that are found in all impact events. The evidence is widespread—our YDB sites extend across more than a dozen countries on four continents (N. America, S. America, Europe, and Asia). In two papers, Wittke et al and Kinzie et al reported about a dozen high-resolution radiocarbon dates, averaging 12,800 ± 100 calendar years ago for the YDB layer. This means that, statistically, the YDB layer at all those sites could have been deposited on the same day—it doesn’t prove it did, but shows it is possible. Yet, even though those dates were directly on the YDB layer and are statistically identical, Meltzer et al rejected them as not being the same. Such a rejection is simply indefensible.”

  59. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents,” op. cit., p. 501.

  60. Cited by Jim Barlow-Oregon, in “Did Exploding Comet Leave Trail of Nanodiamonds?” Futurity: Research News from Top Universities: http://www.futurity.org/comet-nanodiamonds-climate-change-755662/. See also Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” op. cit., p. 476.

  61. Quoted in Julie Cohen, “Nanodiamonds Are Forever: A UCSB professor’s research examines 13,000-year-old nanodiamonds from multiple locations across three continents,” The Current, UC Santa Barbara, 28 August 2014 (http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014368/nanodiamonds-are-forever).

  62. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” op. cit., pp. 498–9.

  63. Quoted in Julie Cohen, “Nanodiamonds Are Forever: A UCSB professor’s research examines 13,000-year-old nanodiamonds from multiple locations across three continents,” op. cit.

  64. Ibid.

  Chapter 6

  1. Troy Holcombe, John Warren et al, “Small Rimmed Depression in Lake Ontario: An Impact Crater?,” Journal of the Great Lakes Research, 27 (4), 2001, pp. 510–17.

  2. Ian Spooner, George Stevens et al, “Identification of the Bloody Creek Structure, a possible impact crater in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada,” Meteoritics and Planetary Science 44, No. 8 (2009), pp. 1193–1202.

  3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corossol_crater.

  4. Higgins M.D., Lajeunesse P. et al, “Bathymetric and Petrological Evidence for a Young (Pleistocene?) 4-km Diameter Impact Crater in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada,” 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held 7–11 March 2011 at The Woodlands, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1608, p. 1504.

  5. Charles R. Kinzie et al, “Nanodiamond-Rich Layer across Three Continents Consistent with Major Cosmic Impact at 12,800 Cal BP,” The Journal of Geology, Vol. 122, No. 5 (September 2014), op. cit., p. 475.

  6. Yingzhe Wu, Mukul Sharma et al, “Origin and provenance of spherules and magnetic grains at the Younger Dryas boundary,” PNAS, 17 September 2013, p. E3557. Available to read online here: http://www.pnas.org/content/110/38/E3557.full.pdf+html.

  7. Mukul Sharma cited in Becky Oskin, “Did ancient Earth-chilling meteor crash near Canada?,” http://www.livescience.com/39362-younger-dryas-meteor-quebec.html.

  8. See for example W.C. Mahaney, V. Kalm et al, “Evidence from the Northwestern Venezuelan Andes for extraterrestrial impact: The Black Mat Enigma, Geomorphology 116 (2010), p. 54.

  9. John Shaw, Mandy Munro-Stasiuk et al, “The Channeled Scabland: Back to Bretz,” Geology, July 1999, Vol. 27, No. 7, pp. 605–8. E.g. p. 605: “We present evidence that suggests that only one major late Wisconsin flood is recorded in the sedimentary record, and that sedimentation within the Glacial Lake Missoula basin was independent of sedimentation in the channeled scabland.” For further discussion and elaboration of the implications of Professor Shaw’s work, and of the key evidence he presents, see Graham Hancock, Underworld, op. cit., Chapter Three.

  10. G. Komatsu, H. Miyamoto et al, “The Channeled Scabland: Back to Bretz?”: Comment and Reply, Geology, June 2000, Vol. 28, pp. 573–4.

  11. Jim E. O’Connor and Victor R. Baker, “Magnitudes and implications of peak discharges from Glacial Lake Missoula,” Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 1992, 104, No. 3, p. 278.

  12. US Geological Survey, “The Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington,” section on Lake Missoula: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/inf/72-2/sec3.htm.

  13. C. Warren Hunt, “Inundation Topography of the Columbia River System,” Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, Vol. 25, No. 3, p. 472.

  14. See Fiona Tweed, Andrew Russell, “Controls on the formation and sudden drainage of glacier-impounded lakes: implications for jökulhlaup characteristics,” Progress in Physical Geography, March 1999, Vol. 23, No. 1, p. 91. Reservations about the integrity of an ice dam more than 2,000 miles long and seven miles high are also expressed by Consulting Engineering Geologist Peter James in “The Massive Missoula Floods: An Alternative Rationale,” New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, No. 48, September 2008, pp. 5–23.

&
nbsp; 15. C. Warren Hunt, “Inundation Topography of the Columbia River System,” Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, op. cit., p. 468 and p. 472.

  16. Ibid., p. 473.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid., and see also C. Warren Hunt, “Catastrophic Termination of the Last Wisconsin Ice Advance: Observations in Alberta and Idaho, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 456–67. Peter James, in “The Massive Missoula Floods,” op. cit, also invokes massive incursions of seawater, in his case linked to putative polar wandering. See, for example, p. 17.

  19. C. Warren Hunt, Environment of Violence: Readings of Cataclysm Cast in Stone, Polar Publishing, Alberta, 1990, p. 137.

  20. Ibid., pp. 118–19.

  21. Ibid., p. 119.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid., pp. 119–20.

  25. Ibid., p. 120.

  26. Firestone, West, Kennett et al, “Evidence for an Extraterrestrial Impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas Cooling,” op. cit., p. 16020.

  27. Henry T. Mullins and Edward T. Hinchley, “Erosion and Infill of New York Finger Lakes: Implications for Laurentide Ice Sheet Deglaciation,” Geology, Vol. 17, Issue 7, July 1989, pp. 622–5.

  28. Julian B. Murton, Mark D. Bateman et al, “Identification of Younger Dryas outburst flood path from Lake Agassiz to the Arctic Ocean,” Nature 464 (7289), April 2010, p. 740.