http://www.theprogressortimes.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=10335

Did extraterrestrial event alter the course of history?

BY DAN REINHART

For years Sheriden Cave, west of Carey, has been recognized as one of the foremost archaeological sites in the Americas, if not the world. At the cave scientists have unearthed extinct animal species and artifacts that have been undisturbed since the last ice age.

...
The Black Mat.

As the excavations continued workers began to uncover a lot of burnt bones. Tankersley said that at first no one paid very much attention to them but eventually questions were raised about how the bones got burned. He said it was obvious that if primitive man had cooked an animal so much that the bones were burned, no one would have wanted to eat the meat. They concluded that the primitive people must have thrown the bones in the fire after they were done eating. But there was no evidence of hearths in the cave. "Why were these animal bones so severely burned?" Tankersley asked.

As excavators searched for an answer to the burnt bones they began to notice an inch-thick layer of earth in the sediment throughout the cave that was black. Scientists were able to obtain 30 radiocarbon dates that indicated the layer of burned material, or "Black Mat," was about 13,000 years old. It dated to about the same time period that Clovis man and many of the mega-beasts disappeared. (The radiocarbon dates have made Sheriden Cave one of only 12 securely dated Clovis sites in the world.)

A new theory takes shape.

With the help of a man named Alan West, Tankersley found that Black Mat layers have been discovered in other late Ice Age sites across the country from the Carolinas to Texas and even into Canada. In each instance the Black Mat of burnt material dates back to the same time period. Furthermore, the Black Mats contain an abundance of micrometeorites. Tankersley said that soil from the Black Mat in Sheriden Cave contains so many magnetic, microscopic meteorites that he can wave a child's magnet across samples of the soil and cover the magnet with them.

Tankersley took the Black Mat material to the University of Cincinnati and magnified it 10,000 times through an electron microscope. He found it was also filled with microscopic "detonation diamonds." He said the majority of the (microscopic) diamonds in the Black Mat are extraterrestrial.

Tankersley pointed out that when asteroids and meteorites explode over the earth they create diamonds. He says the ones at Sheriden Cave are either directly from objects from outer space or they are the result of a major explosion over the earth – like a comet exploding over organic material that compressed it and made diamonds. Tankersley said it is increasingly likely that an asteroid or meteor is the reason for the disappearance of the Clovis people and the mega-beasts 13,000 years ago.

Tankersley said the evidence indicates that the catastrophic event may not have wiped out Clovis man and the mega mammals completely, but life definitely changed and creatures that survived the event had to find a way to exist in a changed environment. For example, there wasn't a lot of food around and since the mega mammals required a lot of food to survive, they had to adapt or die. He said some of the mega mammals became smaller.

Although evidence indicates that an asteroid created the Black Mat, no one has ever found a crater to prove where the event originated. Some scientists believe that Hudson Bay may actually be the crater.

13,000 years later.

Tankersley said that the implications for us in the 21st century are sobering in that the impact of another history-altering asteroid with earth is not a question of "if" it will happen, but "when" it's going to happen next.

Tankersley also noted that the latest discoveries made at Sheriden Cave will be featured in a film on the Discovery Channel in December and another film on the History Channel this spring."

bite me, Doug