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Fire From the Sky · source record · paper

Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH)

Holliday, V. T.; Daulton, T. L.; Bartlein, P. J.; et al. (13 authors total) · 2023

AI-verified citationSRC-HOLLIDAY-2023
identifier / locator
Earth-Science Reviews 247: 104502. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104502
verification note
Confirmed via Crossref (2026-08-22 batch): title, first author, journal, volume, article number, and 13-author count match.
reliability notes
  • The most comprehensive critical review in the literature, spanning impact physics, geochemistry, chronology, ecology, and archaeology; answered by Sweatman, Powell & West 2024, with a further rebuttal by the review's authors — the exchange is carried in this case's evidence.

Evidence drawn from this source

Undermines· strongYDIH-E032

Holliday et al. 2023: the comprehensive refutation

what the source states
A thirteen-author cross-disciplinary review concluded the hypothesis fails across every examined domain — impact physics, geology, geochemistry, chronology, ecology, and archaeology — finding no self-consistent physical and stratigraphic case for a Younger Dryas cosmic event: proxy peaks non-reproducible or non-diagnostic, chronologies inadequate for synchrony, proposed impact scenarios physically inconsistent, and the claimed consequences explained by conventional processes.
what we infer
The current center of gravity of independent expert assessment. Its force comes from breadth (every evidence line addressed in one place) rather than from new data; the proponents' 2024 "Rejection" and the authors' further "Rebuttal" (both carried in the sources) leave the exchange formally open and substantively where it stood.
limitations
  • Authored substantially by the hypothesis's long-standing critics — thoroughness and partisanship are both real here.
  • Answered by Sweatman, Powell & West 2024 (ESR 258: 104960); the authors rebutted (ESR 258: 104961).
Holliday, V. T. (2023)AI-verified citationYDIH-C020