Rebuttal of Sweatman, Powell, and West's “Rejection of Holliday et al.'s alleged refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis”

Abstract

We stand by our original review. There is no support for a cosmic-origin catastrophe at ~12,850 cal years BP. There is also no support that at ~12,850 cal years BP human populations diminished, late Pleistocene megafauna were wiped out or reduced, and an unique global climate change occurred. The comments are largely built around the same claims we previously rebutted (and rebut here again) based on a broad range of scientific research published in long-standing and recognized journals on impact cratering and mineralogy/geochemistry, as well as late Quaternary geology, paleoclimatology, paleobiology and archaeology. Evidence and arguments purported to support the YDIH involve flawed methodologies, inappropriate assumptions, incomplete comparisons, overgeneralizations, misstatements of fact, misleading information, unsupported claims, irreproducible observations, misinterpretation of fundamental data, logical fallacies, and selected omission of contrary information. These issues are discussed within broader themes in the conduct of scientific research. The burden of proof is on the developers and supporters of the YDIH to critically test their own hypothesis and to fully respond to a large, diverse body of critiques, observations and contradictory evidence. To date, they have failed to do this.