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PNAS

Very high-temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12,900 years ago

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, June 2012
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
31 news outlets
blogs
9 blogs
twitter
13 X users
wikipedia
12 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
2 Google+ users
q&a
1 Q&A thread

Citations

dimensions_citation
95 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
156 Mendeley
Title
Very high-temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12,900 years ago
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, June 2012
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1204453109
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ted E. Bunch, Robert E. Hermes, Andrew M.T. Moore, Douglas J. Kennett, James C. Weaver, James H. Wittke, Paul S. DeCarli, James L. Bischoff, Gordon C. Hillman, George A. Howard, David R. Kimbel, Gunther Kletetschka, Carl P. Lipo, Sachiko Sakai, Zsolt Revay, Allen West, Richard B. Firestone, James P. Kennett

Abstract

It has been proposed that fragments of an asteroid or comet impacted Earth, deposited silica- and iron-rich microspherules and other proxies across several continents, and triggered the Younger Dryas cooling episode 12,900 years ago. Although many independent groups have confirmed the impact evidence, the hypothesis remains controversial because some groups have failed to do so. We examined sediment sequences from 18 dated Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) sites across three continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), spanning 12,000 km around nearly one-third of the planet. All sites display abundant microspherules in the YDB with none or few above and below. In addition, three sites (Abu Hureyra, Syria; Melrose, Pennsylvania; and Blackville, South Carolina) display vesicular, high-temperature, siliceous scoria-like objects, or SLOs, that match the spherules geochemically. We compared YDB objects with melt products from a known cosmic impact (Meteor Crater, Arizona) and from the 1945 Trinity nuclear airburst in Socorro, New Mexico, and found that all of these high-energy events produced material that is geochemically and morphologically comparable, including: (i) high-temperature, rapidly quenched microspherules and SLOs; (ii) corundum, mullite, and suessite (Fe(3)Si), a rare meteoritic mineral that forms under high temperatures; (iii) melted SiO(2) glass, or lechatelierite, with flow textures (or schlieren) that form at > 2,200 °C; and (iv) particles with features indicative of high-energy interparticle collisions. These results are inconsistent with anthropogenic, volcanic, authigenic, and cosmic materials, yet consistent with cosmic ejecta, supporting the hypothesis of extraterrestrial airbursts/impacts 12,900 years ago. The wide geographic distribution of SLOs is consistent with multiple impactors.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 156 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 3 2%
Canada 3 2%
Italy 1 <1%
Czechia 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Mexico 1 <1%
Croatia 1 <1%
Unknown 144 92%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 34 22%
Student > Master 22 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 13%
Student > Bachelor 13 8%
Professor 10 6%
Other 30 19%
Unknown 27 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Earth and Planetary Sciences 67 43%
Environmental Science 11 7%
Arts and Humanities 7 4%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 7 4%
Materials Science 7 4%
Other 22 14%
Unknown 35 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 307. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 January 2024.
All research outputs
#112,701
of 25,584,565 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#2,419
of 103,383 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#480
of 178,143 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#18
of 947 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,584,565 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 103,383 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 178,143 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 947 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.