Younger Dryas trigger: Cosmic Impacts or Volcanoes?
An extensively covered journal article by Sun et al. in Science Advances concludes that volcanoes -- not a fragmenting comet -- caused the Younger Dryas. Sun provides an invaluable trove of data, but less than 72 hours after the publication their interpretation is suffering.

Update: Sweatman publishes paper outlining problems with the volcano theory
Read the paper · scroll inside the window
An extensively covered journal article by Sun et al. in Science Advances concludes that volcanoes — not a fragmenting comet — caused the Younger Dryas. Sun provides an invaluable trove of data, but less than 72 hours after the publication their interpretation is suffering.
Read the paper · scroll inside the window
In a wonderful demonstration of the power of the internet, and the sometimes speed of modern science, polymath and dulcet brit Dr. Martin Sweatman managed to immediately refute the conclusions of Sun on Youtube. The Tusk then tweeted Sweatman’s video and received an equally timely response from a Sun et al. co-author, Dr. Kenny Befus.
As you can read below Dr. Befus is open to an alternative interpretation of the data. This is admirable. I was so impressed with Befus’ tweet I “guaranteed” him that the Younger Dryas Impact authors would work with him and his co-authors to approach the truth.
The truth is, I can’t guarantee such a thing and surely got ahead of myself. The other truth is that Sun et al. provides significant information that will improve our understanding of what the hell happened at the YD.
Please watch Martin’s video carefully, please read Sun closely — and ignore Twitter. But enjoy live science in action.
Hi, I watched the video you suggested. Martin Sweatman does a very careful job pouring through our dataset. He makes some strong points regarding our weaknesses. In the words of my coauthor “we are at the start of a new direction, not an end.” We’ll keep learning.
~Kenny Befus, co-author, Sun et al. 2020, Twitter 8.4.20
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1gVvblVcKu0
Thanks Kenny. I am member of the YDIH team and I guarantee you they would be happy to collaborate and share information and interpretations given the importance of your data and the work behind it. This subject deserves a friendly colloquy! Regards.
— George Howard (@CosmicTusk) August 4, 2020
UPDATE PAPER:
https://cosmictusk.com/wp-content/uploads/Sweatman-Halls-Cave.pdf





