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This category contains sources regarding catastrophism in general, both generally accepted (the Alvarez theory, although a book published as recently as 1996 purports to show that such an impact scenario could not possibly be the explanation for the Great Dying at the end of the Cretaceous) as well as more controversial theories. Found here are links pertaining to various cities that have been destroyed by catastrophes as well as various great flood stories, Biblical catastrophism, secular catastrophism, bombardment by asteroids, and the like.
See the new Catastrophism section in the Bookshop.
See the new Velikovsky section in the Bookshop for related titles.
The Fall and Rise of Catastrophism by Trevor Palmer - "In the case of catastrophism, as applied to geology (the study of the Earth) or palaeontology (the study of fossils), there can be little doubt that, in the eyes of the scientific establishment for a century or more, it has seemed as defunct as any theory could be. Now, however, catastrophism is making a very real contribution to geology and evolutionary theory." - recommended
A paper regarding the extinction of 85 percent of large Australian creatures (see abstract) is being attributed to the arrival and immediate dispersal of humans 50,000 years ago rather than to climate change. The impact of a large meteorite was 5,000 years ago, not 50,000 years as I'd thought. The same arguments have been made regarding the supposed first arrival of humans in the Americas about 11,000 years ago, a supposedly one-time event that led to the extinction of various larger lifeforms such as the mammoth.
An online paper attributes the Carolina Bays to a cometary impact rather than meteoritic or asteroid impacts. While I would argue that this is a distinction without a difference, this is worth reading. "Only a comet appears to satisfy the constraints imposed both by extraterrestrial requirements and observed terrestrial characteristics." - recommended
The 1997 book T.rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez is an excellent choice for a Christmas present for almost anyone, and it should be fairly easy to finish between opening on the 24th or 25th and bedtime on the 26th. At first it seemed geared toward kids, and it certainly should be understandable to them, but most adults will enjoy the approach and style. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but according to this book the dinosaurs were destroyed 65 million years ago by the impact of a large asteroid at what is now the coast of Yucatan. The author Alvarez was one of the people who shared in its discovery, which was directly or indirectly due to the efforts of himself and his father.
The warm personal qualities of the author were in evidence throughout the book, but I really was struck by his class and character by something that appears on pages 98-99. He credits earlier discoveries that either led inexorably to the Alvarez theory or which had been ignored at the time but proved to be precursors. On page 141 he writes of Digby McLaren, who in 1970 suggested that an earlier mass extinction 300 million years before the K-T event might have been due to an impact. Alvarez never resorts to any sort of pejoratives when referring to other theories, and mentions in a couple of places the types of arguments raised by other researchers, and makes reference to the vigorous disagreements that emerged at several conferences. [ however, see the next review below ]
There are still those researchers who maintain that the extinction wasn't sudden, even though the fossil record shows that it was. To support this they merely maintain that the exact date of the death of these species can't be determined with such accuracy. They must also ignore the consequences that would arise from the well-documented, widely accepted impact event. They are left denying that the event took place or that it had no effect on the gradualist scenario, and that the extinction of the dinosaurs took place over the next few millions of years, just by a strange coincidence. Previous objections included the lack of an extinction of plants, but plant seeds can lie in the soil for years before they resprout, and further searches have shown that plant extinctions were also widespread.
An older idea, that a supernova caused the K-T extinctions, still survives judging from a recent book. Alvarez couldn't show why there were massive K-T boundary volcanic eruptions in what is now India and says so in this book. He also discusses the similar phenomenon at the Permian-Triassic boundary (pp. 142-144) and admits that it is not possible to dismiss the coincidence, but points out that no one has any idea why there would be a relationship.
While it is nice to see how science is supposed to operate, with a tolerance of many views, such a tolerance is so rarely applied to multidisciplinary scholars from outside the mainstream, as far as Lixus is concerned many scientists still have much for which to answer. - recommended
Science News Online has a 75th Anniversary Essay some of which concerns the Alvarez theory, as well as a later letter which discounts all evidence for the Chicxulub impact or indeed any catastrophic interpretation apart from the channeled scablands, which was localized and part of the long slow uniformitarian and alleged ice ages.
In Night Comes To The Cretaceous, geologist James Lawrence Powell writes about the origin of the Alvarez theory and is more forthright about the debate over it, which continues to this day but is mostly over. Dewey McLean, one of the proponents of the terrestrial, volcanic cause for the K-T extinction claimed that the elder Alvarez had threatened to ruin his career, and claimed a low level of debate and personal attacks. From the quotes it appears that the late Luis Alvarez took a very unscholarly approach toward those that didn't accept the impact scenario from the outset. On this page McLean writes "In spite of what one reads in Science, the Chicxulub structure on Yucatan has NOT been confirmed as an impact structure," which means McLean's still operating under Aristotle's prejudice against impact. What he's discovered in fact is the way people in science fields actually change directions. McLean also has plenty of information regarding the volcanic theory of K-T extinctions, worth a look. [ Note: The dating of the Deccan Traps has now been shown to be different than the K-T boundary; furthermore the current active volcano is too poor in iridium; more to the point, a volcanic eruption on that scale would almost by definition need a celestial trigger. ]
The ancient volcanic eruptions in India's Deccan Traps have been studied in more detail than when Walter Alvarez wrote his book (reviewed above) and have been shown to have lasted too long to have caused the sudden K-T extinctions. Opponents of the whole scenario argue that the long period of eruptions caused the extinctions and therefore they were not sudden. The weight of evidence is that the extinctions were sudden, and around 75 per cent of Earth's species were destroyed in a short period of time.
Powell takes great care to examine the various predictions made by the Alvarez theory as well as the various criticisms made against it. He points out several times that no matter how frayed the debate may have been, how slipshod some of the arguments for or against, the stiff opposition from anti-impactors caused researchers and institutions to look at data and types of data that had been ignored for nearly a century, to refine their investigations, to identify the crater, and create an interdisciplinary effort.
Powell adapts a map of the distribution of known terrestrial craters maintained on the web by Geological Survey of Canada.
The author has an obvious admiration for the theory of plate tectonics, the Signor-Lipps effect, and theories of periodicity in extinctions. This book is longer than T.rex and the Crater of Doom and more up to date. It is geared more for adults, but could be useful in classrooms. - recommended
Also, try the transcript of PBS' NOVA episode The Doomsday Asteroid.
Edith Kristan-Tollmann and Alexander Tollmann, of the University of Vienna's Geological Institute in Austria, suggest that a cometary crash was the cause of the Biblical Deluge and perhaps the other flood stories around the Earth. Reviews of the thesis by Carla Helfferich, the Times of London are available, and Christof Kuhn are available online. - recommended
The Great Events of the Holocene is one page of an interesting and excellent site that gathers data on the Late Holocene Sea Level. While the site is not as easy to use as it could be, the author takes a helpful one page look at Velikovsky, another page is devoted to The Biblical Flood and Science, still another to Paleoclimate Data, and illustrates Climate, Culture, and Catastrophe in the Ancient World using cross section graphics that resemble the 3-d version of the computer game Sim City. - recommended
Japan's Pyramids - examine the pages of online pictures of the submerged ruins off Okinawa. There are stairways and what may have been thoroughfares, but the formations appear to be quarries. Their location makes them anomalous in that there is no explanation in the conventional chronologies.
Port Royal - this Caribbean city was destroyed by a tidal wave within the past couple of hundred years. It has served as a sort of parable in that while it lived Port Royal was iniquitous (to borrow an old fashioned phrase).
Noachian and Sumerian floods were different events? - the author believes that the Sumerian flood which was recounted in ancient inscriptions and for which the sand strata was found during the digs of the 19th century was just a local event and came much later than the Biblical flood during the time of Noah. It should be noted that there has never been such a local flood in what was Sumeria since the Sumerians recorded that one.
Atlantis, Catastrophism, etc. - may be a good site, but the Java applet search engine didn't work and actually my machine first got knocked offline then had to be rebooted. There is such a thing as being too ambitious. All I really wanted to do was check to see if the article about a downdating of the Thera eruption was on the site.
reviews - Cataclysm! and Earth Under Fire
Book for sale Catastrophism in the Old Testament by Donald Wesley Patten
on Atlantis - an index of pointers to Atlantis sites on the WWW
Syzygy - Earthquake Prediction by Jim Berkland - this is just an earthquake prediction site, no Karnak the Magnificent, just crunched numbers.
Comparative Mythology - search hits on Velikovsky
Young Earth and Flood Geology - a page of mostly creationist catastrophist books
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