5,200 years ago, the weather went wild. On November 9, 2003,
Unknowncountry.com
reported that
evidence had been discovered that past climate change
happened in hours.
This evidence was found in Peru, when cores drilled to the
base of a glacier uncovered plants that had been frozen so
fast that their cellular structure remained intact. This
meant that the freezing process took just minutes, or at
most a few hours. The plants had remained locked in the
glacier ever since.
At the time, this finding was called "astounding," and now
the discoverer, Lonnie Thompson has reported to the American
Geophysical Union that the sudden climate catastrophe that
happened then might be happening again.
Thompson is convinced, based on a meticulous study of ice
cores and historic records, that climate does change rapidly
and dramatically.
5,200 years ago, alpine meadows from Peru to Switzerland
were suddenly buried in mountains of snow. Oetzi, the famous
ice man, was caught in one of the storms in Switzerland and
remained frozen until 1991. The world climate suddenly
became much drier and colder as water vapor was trapped in
ice. The Sahara desert appeared, destroying in a matter of
years a vast temperate region and turning it to a sandy
waste. Worldwide drought ravaged forest and grassland alike.
What happened to human beings--of which there were about 250
million on the planet at the time--remains obscure, but
documents like the Popul vuh, which describes an enormous
upheaval, suggest that extraordinary climactic violence
accompanied the change.
The sun might have been to blame. There is evidence that
solar output dropped suddenly, then shot up again. The
increase in temperature caused equally violent changes, with
massive ice melts worldwide. It is possible that this event
is recorded in worldwide flood stories that date from
approximately 4,000 years ago and are present in virtually
every culture.
Thompson says, "the evidence is clear that a major climate
change is underway."
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