[meteorite-list] Re:Comet hit Britain in mid sixth century, AD?

From: Paul Barford <pbarford_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 21 13:00:55 2006
Message-ID: <010a01c6ace7$13bfd640$1f85cf57_at_chello.pl>

> Baileys comet impact hypothesis is quite contested, it certainly is not an
> accepted main stream hypothesis. So I was quite surprised by the tone of
that
> newspaper clipping that suggested so. The astrophysicist supporting it
are, by
> the way, astrophysicists with a known fetish for impacts as a source for
every
> historical change.

Thanks Marco,
In general, I think the theory is very dubious. The guy was trying to
explain how small numbers of Anglo-Saxon migrants replaced a much larger
indigenous Celtic/British population both genetically and linguistically.
But if the Britons were dying off in the 530s because of poor crop yields
and cold nights or whatever caused by cometary dust in the atmosphere, then
the Anglo-Saxons would too.

Unless of course somebody postulates an actual impact which wiped out a
large part of the (British) population on the west side of the island, but
was survived by larger numbers on the east which is where the Anglo-Saxons
were. But then that's not a good model either, because Ireland is where it
would have hit... and there is no evidence of such an event from there.

Just as a matter of interest if someone has time to fiddle with it, what
parameters would such a hypothetical body have to have to kill people within
a radius of 300 km (so along the whole western coast of England and Wales)
but leave those beyond still alive? [I could not get the Arizona Earth
Impact Effects Program http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/ to give the
result I wanted - just curious].

Paul Barford
Received on Fri 21 Jul 2006 12:59:48 PM PDT