An hour-long storm started a mini ice age,

[Still Waters]

An hour-long hailstorm from space bombarded the Earth 13,000 years ago - plunging the planet into a mini-ice age, scientists claimed today.

The catastrophe was caused by a disintegrating comet and saw the planet sprayed by thousands of frozen boulders made of ice and dust.

The collisions wiped out huge numbers of animal species all over the world, disrupted the lives of our stone age ancestors and triggered a freeze that lasted more than 1,000 years.

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[lp21why]

The theory is the brainchild of Professor Bill Napier, from Cardiff University, who says it explains the mysterious period of extinction around 11,000 BC.

Scientists have long been puzzled by what caused a sudden cooling of up to 8C (14F) just as the Earth was warming up at the end of the last ice age.

That just isn't true, we know that a ice dam burst sending nearly 200,000km3 of water into the North Atlantic disrupting the Gulf Stream. Also there is no evidence of the impact event to be found Link

[SRCivic98]

exactly and not to mention if hail was coming from space to the earth it would turn straight into rain or evaporate all together because of the extreme heat from entering the Earth's atomosphere.

[Astute One]

exactly and not to mention if hail was coming from space to the earth it would turn straight into rain or evaporate all together because of the extreme heat from entering the Earth's atomosphere.

Not if isn't moving at 100000km/hr. It would blow a hole about 300 miles in diameter and vaporize rock, ice, everthing and blast it out into space. It would create so much heat from the release of kenetic energy that it would heat the planet, not cool it. Look what happened when the schumaker comet hit jupiter. It blasted a hole much bigger than earth and ejected matter into space. The crater would be visible now, because its not that long ago. The theory is nonsense.

[FurthurBB]

That just isn't true, we know that a ice dam burst sending nearly 200,000km3 of water into the North Atlantic disrupting the Gulf Stream. Also there is no evidence of the impact event to be found Link

That is what actually caused the ice age, not the event at the end of the ice age that they are talking about.

[FurthurBB]

Not if isn't moving at 100000km/hr. It would blow a hole about 300 miles in diameter and vaporize rock, ice, everthing and blast it out into space. It would create so much heat from the release of kenetic energy that it would heat the planet, not cool it. Look what happened when the schumaker comet hit jupiter. It blasted a hole much bigger than earth and ejected matter into space. The crater would be visible now, because its not that long ago. The theory is nonsense.

They are talking about parts of a comet that has been breaking apart for 10s of thousands of years. There is strange evidence of an impact sort of event at that time. This is a theory trying to explain why that evidence was found. it is actually not nonsense, but, not necessarily the case either.