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Re: Large animal extinctions caused by early man
Timo Niroma (timo.niroma@tilmari.pp.fi)
6 Jul 1996 09:02:37 GMT
In article <31DDAB17.5AA2@megafauna.com>, Stephen Barnard
<steve@megafauna.com> says:
>(snips)
>
>I have heard of a recent theory that the ice age could have been caused
>by the solar system passing though a cloud of interstellar dust. That
>doesn't seem implausible to me, and it is conceiveably even testable.
>
> Steve Barnard
I'm aware of that theory and it would neatly explain why the ice-ages
have been very severe during the last 700,000 or 800,000 years and have
only modest and short interglacials between them. But it still doesn't
explain the suddenness and catastrophic nature of the end of Pleistocene.
Even if we are out of the interstellar cloud now, as it seems, it only
gives us a possibility to be rid of the ice age's severe part.
By the way, the solar system is drifting towards a new cloud which it is
to reach according to various estimates after 50,000 to 100,000 years
from now,
Regards,
Timo
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