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earth:geohammers:k_bce_events

Before Common Era (BCE) Events

Thousands of years before Common Era (BCE) events; BCE replacing BC in most calendar events.

Okmok Volcano, 43 BCE

Aleutian Island volcano that caused crop failures in the Roman Republic and the Pharaonic Egypt, ushering in a new age in the Mediterranean region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Okmok
https://www.geologyin.com/2020/12/alaska-islands-may-be-part-of-single.html?fbclid=IwAR1qHoidS6IDjZbgko_DWoWSohoIGt1Z_Nxe7TjYMKjjar28Psd9ytKEGaY

Bond Event 2, Iron Age Cold Epoch, 450 BCE

The expansion of ancient Greece may be tied to fluctuations in the North Atlantic and global climates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_event

Herotodus' Tsunami, 479 BCE

Persian armies invading Potidaea (Greece) destroyed by a tsunami.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historic_tsunamis

Lost Army of Cambyses II, c530 BCE

A massive sandstorm supposedly wipes out an army of 50,000 soldiers near the Egyptian-Libyan border.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambyses_II

Samoan Tsunami, 790 BCE

A Pacific tsunami halts the spread of the Samoan archipelago.

Witze, Alexandra. February 25, 2012. Making waves: Japanese quake gave scientists an unprecedented look at a big tsunami. Science News, Vol 181, No 4.

Nile Drought, 1000 BCE

Pollen and charcoal evidence in Nile sediments indicate a drought as big as the one that destroyed the Old Kingdom

http://phys.org/news/2012-08-climate-drought-lessons-ancient-egypt.html#ajTabs

Cotacachi Eruption, 1100 BCE

Located in the Andes mountains, this large volcanic outburst formed Cuicocha (lake) and spread many minerals about the fertile region. The volcano and caldera are believed dormant, though they released a VEI 6.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuicocha

Widespread Drought, 1150 BCE

According to Susan Bauer, there was widespread drought, famine, pestilence (perhaps bubonic plague), and war around 1150BCE.

Bauer, Susan. 2007. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-393-05974-8

Minoan Eruption, mid1500s BCE

Minoan eruption of Thera releases 24 cubic miles of debris and destroys the nearly circular caldera already present. Some speculate that this could have been the seed for the stories of Atlantis. Others speculate that this eruption triggered the plagues of Egypt as mentioned in the Bible. Exact dating remains questioned, and the VEI is estimated at 7.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption

Aniakchak Eruption, 1628 BCE

Mount Aniakchak is an Aleutian volcano in Alaska, which underwent a VEI 6 around the same time as the Minoan eruption, confusing ice cores trying to date the Greek island eruption. The eruption was apparently a high-sulfur release which significantly cooled the planet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Aniakchak
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-home-thera-volcano-eruption-date.html

Tel Kabri Earthquake, 1700 BCE

A Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri collapsed due to an earthquake.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-ancient-earthquake-destruction-canaanite-palace.html

Harappan Collapse, 1900 BCE

Sarasvati River begins to dry up, and the Indus River population begins to collapse.

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-climate-collapse-ancient-indus-civilization.html

4.2kiloyear Event (Bond Event 3) + Taurid Meteors, 2200 BCE

Four point two thousand years ago, intensely arid conditions brought about the collapse of many of the great civilizations of the world. The cause is thought to be linked to Bond Events, brought about by a periodic cycling of the North Atlantic cycle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intermediate_Period_of_Egypt - Fall of Egypt's Old Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2_kiloyear_event - 4.2ky Event
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_event - Bond Event
http://phys.org/news/2014-02-decline-bronze-age-megacities-linked.html - Hindus Aridity
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-climate-empire-fall-tree-reveal.html - Akkadian Aridity

The Biblical Sodom and Gommorah were wiped out at the same time as over 40 other city-states across that face of the world. Evidence points to the Taurid meteors, hitting every 2500 years for several centuries within that mark.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sodom-and-gomorrah-destroyed-by-a-comet-say-astronomers-1275763.html

The Henbury Meteorites of Australia impacted during this timeframe, when a meteor(s) broke up into a dozen pieces, each several tons in weight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henbury_Meteorites_Conservation_Reserve

Temple Culture of Malta Collapses, 2350 BCE

Thousands of years of occupation on the Isle of Malta falters and then ends with a dust storm of possibly volcanic origin.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-a-thriving-civilization-in-malta-collapsed-4-000-years-ago?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Global Droughts, 2429 BCE

Evidence of a global drought has been found in glacial data world wide from this time frame (plus or minus a century or so). Small dust particles, roughly one micron in diameter, are seen in ice cores.

PhysOrg, 19JUN2009, http://www.physorg.com/news164546585.html

This timeframe corresponds to the mass migration of the Ymnaya culture from the grasslands north of the Black Sea into Europe, creating the Corded Ware Culture.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/european-invasion-dna-reveals-origins-modern-europeans

Additional evidence comes from Lake Tana in Ethiopia – source of the Blue Nile. A drought there some 4200 years ago correlates with the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt (this could be moved up 200 years to the time of Sodom and Gommorah).

Planet Earth, 16JUL2011, http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1019

Burckle Impact & Global Flooding, 2807 BCE

Bruce Masse as Los Alamos proposes a cometary impact in the southern Indian ocean as a cause of the global mythos of a great flood.

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/nov/did-a-comet-cause-the-great-flood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burckle_Crater
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

Glacial Advance, 3191 BCE

Glaciers in Peru rapidly advanced, covering a tropical marsh and preserving it's plants. Other indicators point to this being a temporary global cooling event, causing arid conditions across much of the globe.

PhysOrg, 19JUN2009, http://www.physorg.com/news164546585.html PhysOrg, AUG2012, http://phys.org/news/2012-08-climate-drought-lessons-ancient-egypt.html#ajTabs

Farming Spreads, 5kBCE

Farming rapidly spreads across Europe in one or two rapid waves.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/european-invasion-dna-reveals-origins-modern-europeans

Akahoya Eruption, 5.3k BCE

The Kikai Caldera of Japan put out 36 cubic miles of material. Radiocarbon dating puts it at 4500 BCE instead of 5300 BCE indicated by archaeological evidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akahoya_eruption

Biblical Flood, 5.5k BCE

The Euxine Lake (now known as the Black Sea) is flooded by the rising waters of the Mediterranean, rising 500 feet and transforming the region from a nexus of agriculture and civilization into a salty shore. This is possibly the 'great flood' of Hebrew and Sumerian history.

Brian M Fagan. 2006. “Archaeology: A Brief History”, 9th ed. p235-236. Pearson / Prentice Hall, NJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis

Mount Mazama Eruption, 5.7k BCE

Crater Lake, icon of Oregon, was formed when Mount Mazama collapsed in this VEI 7 eruption. The volcano was estimated to be a 14,000 foot peak before it fell, with part of its remaining caldera forming an 8,000 foot peak today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Mazama

Misox oscillation, 6.2k BCE

Linked to a 1500 year climate cycle, the oscillation was first identified by Swiss botanist Heinrich Zoller. This was a pulse of freezing temperatures not quite as bad as the Younger Dryas event, but still significant, none-the-less. Most scientists apparently agree that the “6.2 kiloyear event” (as it's more commonly called) is linked to a meltwater pulse that threw off the thermohaline current.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.2_kiloyear_event

Storegga Slides, 6225-6170 BCE

Three different collapses of the Norwegian continental shelf cause tsunamis throughout Northern Europe, and likely swept Doggerland in devestating floods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide

Mount Okmok, 6.3k BCE

Mount Okmok in the Aleutian Islands went off with a VEI 6.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Okmok

Ilinsky eruption, 6460-6414k BCE

Kurile Lake in the Kamchatka range of Russia is the remains of a VEI 7 caldera.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurile_Lake

The Great Floods, 6.5k BCE

The final draining of Lake Agassiz raised global sea levels by significant amounts (up to three feet by some estimations), and may have played a role in the great flood myths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz

Younger Dryas, 10.8K

The Younger Dryas event was a period of extreme cooling theoretically caused by an abrupt change in the North Atlantic thermohaline current, brought about by the Lockhart phase of Lake Agassiz flooding down the Hudson; this event was probably brought about by an impact event. Recent evidence indicates the cooling occurred within the span of mere months as the thermohaline current shut down. The time period also coincides with 1500y solar cycles, which have been implicated in repeating cooling events. Other evidence points towards this being the start of the Anthropocene, due to men wiping out the huge methane producers of the age, although the cometary impact evidence has begun edging this out. Global de-cooling begins to take place after this event, leading to deluges that heralded many of the great flood stories. Monsoon changes in the Sahara made it a lush plainsland with gigantic lakes, and at least two groups of peoples (the Kiffians first, and the Tenerians at least a thousand years later).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas
http://www.physorg.com/news99134637.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.2_kiloyear_event
http://www.physorg.com/news178804829.html
http://www.physorg.com/news193847219.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(prehistoric)
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/08/stone_age_graveyard_reveals_li.php
http://phys.org/news/2012-06-evidence-theory-extraterrestrial-impact.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz

Abu Hureyra in Syria may have been a secondary impact site during this time.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w

The smoking gun for a cometary airburst or impact creating massive wildfires and instantly melting a great deal of glacial ice (to shut down the thermohaline current) was found with iridium and platinum in ice core samples. A tentative crater has been identified in Greenland beneath the Hiawatha Crater.

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-evidence-cosmic-impact-younger-dryas.html
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-cataclysmic-event-age.html
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaar8173

A simultaneous VEI 6 in Germany known as Laacher See has been implicated as a factor in the Younger Dryas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laacher_See

A global firestorm (10% of earth's surface on fire) may have followed the impact.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-firestorm-bigger-than-the-one-that-killed-the-dinosaurs-triggered-an-ice-age-13-000-years-ago

Gobekli-Tepe Comet, 10950 BCE

Archaeologists interpret the Gobekli-Tepe Vulture Stone to corroborate an ice-core indicator of cometary impact. The devastation of the Laurentide ice sheet, micrometeors in mammoth tusks from the timeframe, and other data seem to support the impact.

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-ancient-stone-pillars-clues-comet.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis

H1 Megadrought, 16.8k BCE

Heinrich Events are evidenced by massive glacial meltings and the stones carried by calving ice bergs. The worst Heinrich Event is known as H1, and appears to be a global megadrought, perhaps brought about by a collapse of the North Atlantic thermohaline current. The events may have been on a 7k year cycle during the ice ages, which could tie in with the 1500 (7k * 2 -ish) solar cycles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_event
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-ancient-catastrophic-drought-severe-climate.html

Aira Caldera, 22k BCE

This Japanese caldera on the island of Kyushu is home to Kagoshima and a post-caldera volcano. The original volcano was estimated at VEI 7.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aira_Caldera

Oruanui Eruption, 24.5k BCE

New Zealand's north island volcano of Taupo detonates, leaving behind a lake twenty miles across in the midst of the island. The VEI 8 explosion a hundred cubic miles of pyroclastic flows alone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oruanui_eruption

Campi Flegrei, 37k BCE

The Phlegraean Fields of Naples still has hydrothermal activity from the VEI 7 eruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campi_Flegrei

Neanderthalian Extinctions, 38k BCE

Three separate volcanic eruptions during this time lead to decimation of Europe and Western Asia, where neanderthals tended to live. With humans living in Southern Africa and Eastern Asia, the eruptions appear to have paved the way for human dominance in Western Eurasia.

Bruce Bower of Science News on 23OCT2010 reviews Liubov Golovanova's work from the October Current Anthropology

Campi Flegrei Eruption, 39k BCE

Laschamp Event, 41.4k BCE

Earth's magnetic field reversed for centuries, resulting in significant cosmic ray and ultraviolet light bombardment. The low magnetic field component at 42.2 to 41.5k years ago has been called the Adams Transitional Geomagnetic Event, where field strength dropped to 6% of its modern level – and could have caused the extinction of Australian megafauna and neanderthals, and the use of ochre to protect the skin from UV light, higher cave usage, more cave paintings, auroras seen globally, and a psychological 'end of the world'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laschamp_event
https://newatlas.com/environment/ancient-tree-geomagnetic-field-shift-environment-chaos/?fbclid=IwAR1SCEy3DcBh7ueg9UdeDgeKuM3guzWZXQzWOJiNjV-6d_K-4dmoVzT9lhU

Yilan Crater, 46-53k BCE

Mile-wide crater in Northeast China appears to date to between 46,000 and 53,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating of nearby lake sediments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yilan_crater

Lake Toba, and the First Exodus, c72K BCE

Modern genetic forensics indicates that humans have a relatively small amount of biodiversity, most probably due to a bottlenecking event some 70-80 thousand years ago. The information indicates that all modern humans descended from between 2,000 and 20,000 people in Africa during that time frame. The timing of this bottlenecking event seems to coincided with the eruption of one of the world's largest known super volcanoes that now forms Lake Toba in Indonesia. The eruption of the Toba caldera plunged the world into an 'instant ice age' akin to a nuclear winter, apparently wiping out all other humans across the world. After this bottleneck, humanity apparently exploded out of Africa, reaching almost all of Eurasia not covered by ice within a few thousand years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba
http://www.physorg.com/news178210720.html
http://www.physorg.com/news103983229.html
http://phys.org/news/2012-11-massive-volcanic-eruption-climate-people.html

Hoba Meteorite, 80k BCE

The Human Bottleneck, c100k BCE

Another correspondence to the bottleneck listed for Lake Toba, above, is the inactivation of two components of our immune system – components that made us targets for communicable, infectious diseases. Those diseases (E. coli K1 and Strep B) may have wiped out the infants of all humans that had active targets in the immune system for those two bugs.

http://phys.org/news/2012-06-infectious-disease-human.html

Las Canadas Caldera Forms, c150k BCE

VEI 5 level eruption in the Canary Islands contributes to the modern shape of Mount Teide, second only to Mauna Kea in absolute height. If a flank collapse buried or submerged significant archaeological information, then then Teide could still be a source of the tales of Atlantis, with the location more closely matching Plato's descriptions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teide https://phys.org/news/2018-01-large-volcanic-island-flank-collapses.html

Modern Man Emerges, c200k BCE

The general consensus is that modern man evolved sometime around 200,000 years ago in Africa. The 'Out of Africa' theory is often questioned, as is the timeline for the emergence of modern man. One event directly tied to modern man arising in Africa is the dying down of the elephants.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-elephant-modern-years.html

Whakamaru Eruption, 252k BCE

VEI 8 listed on the main Wikipedia Volcanic Explosivity Index page.

SJA Brown, CJN Wilson, JW Cole, J Wooden. 1998. “The Whakamaru group ignimbrites, Taupo Volcanic Zone, new Zealand: evidence for reverse tapping of a zone silicic magmatic system.” Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 84(1-2): pp1-37.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v319/n6054/abs/319578a0.html

Lonar Crater Impact, 570k BCE

A 1.8km crater was excavated in the Maharashtra region of India. Originally thought to be part of the Deccan traps and volcanic in origin, it was excavated by a meteor. Earlier indicators pointed towards a 52k BCE impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonar_crater_lake

Yellowstone Eruption, 640k BCE

Yellowstone hot spot releases 240 cubic miles of ash and debris – 280 times more than the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption. An eruption 2.1M BCE ejected 600 cubic miles of ash and debris, while another eruption 1.3M BCE ejected 67 cubic miles. The 'line of fire' Achenback writes about begins roughly 20M years ago in southern Oregon and northern Nevada, with periodic supervolcano eruptions. The McDermitt volcanic field erupted between 16.5 and 18 million years ago, followed by the Owyhee-Humboldt at 13.8M, Breneau-Jarbidge at 12.5M, Twin Falls at 10.8M, Picabo at 10.3M, and Heise at 6.65M years ago, with the majority of these moving through southern Idaho.

Achenbach, Joel. August 2009. National Geographic, p67.

Long Valley Caldera, 760k BCE

A large magma chamber in eastern California near Mammoth Mountain blows in a VEI 7 eruption. The area still hosts hot springs and a geothermal plant, but very little magma remains in the pool. The crater filled with water at some point and formed a lake that drained roughly 100,000 years ago. Ash from the eruption likely covered much of the western United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Valley_Caldera
http://geology.com/stories/13/volcanic-explosivity-index/

Darwin Crater, 790,000 BCE

Darwin Crater in Tasmania forms at the same time as Asia, Australia, Canada, and South American. The unnamed bombardment likely hit with considerable force, but appears to have done relatively minor damage. The Darwin Crater itself may have had a separate impact time from the bombardment.)

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/02/scientists-pinpoint-dates-for-multiple-ancient-imapcts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Crater

earth/geohammers/k_bce_events.txt · Last modified: 2022/05/20 22:46 by khavikanum