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Published online 12 December 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.372
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Mammoth tusks show up meteorite shower
Fossils could provide a new gold mine for micrometeorite hunters.
Bullet-like pieces of what is thought to be an ancient meteorite shower have been found embedded in mammoth tusks and bison bone.
The discovery of the 2–5 millimetre holes left by meteorites opens a window into a impact event thought to have happened over Alaska and Russia tens of thousands of years ago.
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This is really a great discovery that I appreciate the most. The only way for us to know the past events of the long history of the universe within our brief existence is to study their traces left and theory based on which will let us edit a story of the evolution of the universe that we hope is true. I encourage further study. Thank you.
These findings immediately bring into mind the Tunguska event, and the possibility of independent corroboration. From http://www.rense.com/general71/tung.htm --> "As recently as 1908 an object from space impacted our world. It exploded over Russian Siberia, coming ominously close to striking the Earth. Even exploding in the air as it did, it flattened 1,200 square miles of forest, with huge old-growth trees -- 60 million of them -- broken off instantly like matchsticks. Near the center, trees and animals were vaporized or instantly incinerated. This event, called the Tunguska Event, is believed to have been caused by very small asteroid, thought to be a mere 60 yards across. It exploded three to four miles in the air." Surely, expeditions to the Tunguska region have (or will) reveal skeletal remains of animals that could be analyzed in a manner similar to West's?
What is the age of those mammoths preserved in the Siberian permafrost, that apparently died so suddenly and unexpectedly? Could they have been killed by an asteroid exploding in the atmosphere? Are their tusks peppered with iron-rich fragments?