Tepe hype again

A former blog back in 2017 linked this, against Martin B. Sweatman. The overall hype up to then was that Göbekli Tepe [UPDATE 5/16/22: among others] was doing zodiacs; which, I'm fine wit'. But the main hype-ers also claimed it witnessed a comet strike, to spark the "Younger Dryas" climate downtown. This was Firestone's theory, back in 2007. IntCal20 sets the YD at 10900 BC.

I'd come around to the comet theory in February 2018 (against, lol, global warming or lmao, Vela). So, last night, with hat-tips from Reynolds and news outlets, Sweatman is defending the impact hypothesis, albeit leaving Göbekli (mostly) aside for now.

Rare minerals - iridium, osmium, and (here) platinum - get barfed up from our own mantle just as easily as rained on here from space. Same with (silica) microspherules, and microdiamonds. There was also the issue that we have no crater and no local abundance. To that the hypothesis sited this impact - literally - across Atlantic ice, here the Laurentide. By contrast to a crater we don't got, we do got a contemporary volcano: the Laacher See.

Anyway today I've found Sweatman's text. This explains his candidate for the YD horizon, the Black Mat.

The paper deals with volcanism #2.1. Although such can toss up rare metals they would come with sulfates (and with "tephra", which Laacher See deposited in Central Europe... only). These aren't in the Black Mat. Additionally, those microspherules are full of iron beyond what any volcano has in its microspherules. And the diamonds are nano-, a thousand times smaller than Earthly microdiamonds.

As for the mat's date, some mooted 10900 BP - if you trust Sweatman's proofreading (see below). "Before Present" means before Los Alamos messed up the carbon. Sweatman's preferred sources pull it to 12840-805 BP so, you know... YD.

Lastly, we might actually have the crater now. In Greenland, one such is under the "Hiawatha" Glacier and it's got a twin to its southeast. Both are Pleistocene. NO THEY'RE NOT 3/11

On the minus side, Sweatman isn't on IntCal20 yet. But IntCal20 only helps him since it pulls Laacher See further back, too early for YD. In any case #2.2 demonstrates Laacher See's residue lies beneath the black mat (tho' not as far beneath as the mat's 10900-BP placement would have it). More annoying is that Sweatman seems sometimes to be thinking "BC" when he prints "BP". As for the facts in evidence, I'd like to know if a volcano can disperse microspherules globally but tephra only locally. How did Tambora do?

Overall I deem Sweatman has a strong argument. At least it should inspire the Laacher proponents to refine their arguments.