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Cosmic bogs @ the London Catastrophes conference

August 17, 2002

You may think that peat bogs are among the least interesting places on Earth and you could be right. But according to speakers at Brunel University`s `Environmental Catastrophes` conference, that doesn`t stop them being excellent recorders of catastrophic environmental events like volcanic eruptions and cosmic influx.

According to Dr Lars Franzen, bogs in Sweden, Ireland and Norway show high cosmic influxes in several periods. These are c. 7000 BC, 3000 BC, 2300 BC, 1700 BC, 1000 BC, 500 BC, 550 AD, 850 AD, 1300 AD and around the peak of "The Little Ice Age". All of these peaks coincide with climatic, and many with known cultural, downturns. Dr Franzen suggests that most of the rapid climate shifts during the Holocene could be attributed to cosmic activity. He will argue that such cosmic events, in one way or the other, are responsible for the Dark Ages in our history.

A peat bog in Estonia that lies a few kilometres from a suspected meteorite impact site, the Kaali impact crater (Island of Saaremaa, Estonia) has yielded new and controversial results about the age of the impact. Previous studies had suggested that the peat layers containing extraterrestrial material and impact ejecta dated the impact to about 6270-6500 BC. New research by Professor Siim Veski suggests that the impact is far more recent than that, lying between 800-400 BC.

Professor Veski`s research suggests that the impact caused local wildfires that resulted in an ecological catastrophe around the epicentre of the site. It is possible that the fires were connected with the burning of a nearby settlement in the period 800-400 BC.

Finally, bogs themselves may be hazardous! Research by Ben Gearey of the University of Hull outlines how the catastrophic failure of bogs has had major impacts upon past natural environments and human communities in the Irish boglands, as is vividly described in the historical literature.

Geological Society of London, The