The Atacama comet

In more comet news, something hit northern Chile about 10kBC: cubanite, troilite and calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions. They say it looks like the stuff the Stardust mission brought back... from comet Wild 2.

This'll be a different comet of course. Although... the timing does match the astronomy of Göbekli and other Tepeler.

Northern Chile is a horrible place to live today. The error-bars (which we get in the paper) allow sometime in 12.3-11.5 "BP" which means 10300-9500 BC. That span coincides with the Younger Dryas era... north del ecuador. South of Peru, the paper notes a glacial return and the extinction of several species: Hippidion and Equus (horses), and Glossotherium and Mylodon (sloths). Although, its impact doesn't seem mighty enough to be causal. I still blame Laacher See for that.