Undermines· strongYDIH-E009
The 2016 blind test: little at the boundary, more above it
- what the source states
- Two laboratories analyzed identical splits from a stratigraphic sequence, blinded to the target layer: the study reported very low or absent Younger Dryas boundary microspherule and nanodiamond abundance, a substantially larger microspherule peak in a younger (post-YD) sample, and the absence of standardized criteria for identifying magnetic microspherules.
- what we infer
- The single best-designed test in the literature, and the pattern it found — boundary unremarkable, bigger peak elsewhere — is what background-plus-selective-emphasis looks like. One principal site limits its geographic reach; nothing limits its methodological lesson.
- limitations
- Essentially a single-site test; proponents dispute its sample handling and argue its sites were not their strongest.