Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas… (SRC-WOLBACH-2018)

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ~12,800 Years Ago (Parts 1 and 2)

Wolbach, W. S.; Ballard, J. P.; Mayewski, P. A.; et al. (27 and 31 authors) · 2018

AI-verified citationSRC-WOLBACH-2018

identifier / locator

The Journal of Geology 126(2): 165–184 and 185–205. DOIs: 10.1086/695703 (Part 1, ice cores) and 10.1086/695704 (Part 2, lake/marine sediments)

verification note

Both parts confirmed via Crossref (2026-08-22 batch): titles, first author, journal, volume, and pages match.

reliability notes

Proponent-team compilation proposing exceptional hemispheric burning and an 'impact winter'; its data selection, statistical exceptionalism, and reproducibility were formally challenged by Holliday et al. 2020, with a same-journal reply by the authors.

Evidence drawn from this source

Supports· moderateYDIH-E017

what the source states: A two-part compilation of ice-core combustion aerosols and lake/marine charcoal and soot proxies reported synchronous peaks at the Younger Dryas onset, interpreted as an extraordinary biomass-burning episode — on the order of ~9–10% of Earth's biomass burned — followed by an impact winter.
what we infer: The proponents' strongest consequence claim, and the one whose statistics were most directly challenged: the "extraordinary" verdict depends on proxy selection and exceptionalism tests that independent reanalysis could not reproduce (next record). The burned-fraction figure should not be quoted without that context.
limitations: Proxy selection and statistical methods formally disputed by Holliday et al. 2020; the authors replied in the same journal.