The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes - Richard Firestone, Allen West and Simon Warwick Smith

The other day, whilst writing up a recent report on the Topper site, I mentioned Richard Firestone, who along with Allen West and Simon Warwick-Smith, is one of the authors of what looks like an excellent book on this subject, namely 'The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes' - Flood, Fire and Famine in the History of Civilization - I've only had a quick flick through it, as it's been sitting on the 'Read Me' section of my bookshelf for a while now, but it looks to be packed full of fascinating research and into analysis of past impact events in North America, in which everything from Clovis, the mega-faunal extinction and the Carolina Bays, to considerations of the origins of comets and what happens when they hit Earth - all of which I look forward to reading, once I've finished a couple of other books.

It has about 400 pages, including appendices and a bibliography, and is richly illustrated, so just to whet your appetite, and indeed mine, here's this from the introduction...

"Plato wrote about the catastrophic destruction of Atlantis, which occurred in a day and a night about 11,600 years ago. The Bible vividly describes torrential rains and an immense flood in which most of humanity perished. Native Americans have many rich stories about a enormous cataclysm involving worldwide fires and flooding. Altogether, the myth and folklore of as many as fifty different cultures around the planet tell of similar global devastations during which humanity went through a trial by fire and flood.

Are the cultural legends based on facts, or are they fables? Did a major calamity actually happen? Lacking hard evidence, scientists have dismissed the old tales of epic natural disasters, and even though popular writers have speculated about such catastrophes, convincing proof has been elusive. Until now, no one has discovered decisive evidence of a specific event that caused mass extinction."

So this book sets out to interpret and explain a series of events which began 41,000 years ago, eventually leading to what the authors refer to as the "Event", the catastrophic mystery that hit North America 13,000 years ago, which not only may have caused the end of the Clovis industry, but killed untold numbers of fauna and humans in the process.

The book is divided into three main parts, One: The Search, Two: The Main Event, and Three: The Evidence, with the first section of the work looking at some of the anomalies on the American continent, such as radio-active mammoth bones, the Drumlins, and the previously mentioned Carolina Bays.

What Really Happened? looks at the putative impact event itself, whilst The Evidence heads off into space for a consideration of things cosmological - along with some gorgeous colour plates.

I've only dipped into it here and there, and as soon as I rediscover my temporarily absent ability to sit down and properly read a book from cover to cover, I'll attempt a fuller review.

see also: Astrobiology - Supernova Waves Rolled Over Mammoths

Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?

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