Comet Research Group

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The Comet Research Group, Inc. (also known as the CRG) is non-profit organization whose members promote their research focused on cosmic impact events or meteor air bursts on Earth in the distant past,[1] including events of biblical significance.[2] The group has been criticized for advancing pseudoscientific and pseudoarchaeological claims[3] of catastrophism[4] particularly surrounding topics of Göbekli Tepe, Abu Hureyra, and the discredited Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.[5][6] These proposals are typically proposed in opposition to what they view as uniformitarianism. Members of the CRG have also supported the assertion that Indigenous people of the Hopewell tradition in the eastern United States were affected by an airburst event that occurred in the 3rd or 4th century.[7] Books by CRG members promote the idea of "cosmic catastrophism",[8] while interest in claims that such events were a driving force in prehistory and in history was revived as speculation grew regarding the surrounding the 2012 phenomenon.[9][10]

History

The CRG was founded by paleoceanographer James P. Kennett and others who contend that the incidence of comet and meteoritic impacts of global significance is much higher than what is normally considered the rate. The multidisciplinary CRG membership roster lists at least sixty scientists from fifty-five colleges and universities (both accredited and unaccredited) in sixteen countries. Its members include archaeologist Andrew M.T. Moore, astronomers Willam Napier and Dante Lauretta.[11] It is linked to Rising Light Group, Inc., another nonprofit organization[12] that promotes religion, public awareness, and tolerance.[13]

Claims

Members of the CRG claim to have discovered that a Tunguska-sized meteor air burst destroyed one of the occupations at Tall el-Hammam, an archeological site in Jordan. This tell is thought by some researchers to represent remains of the biblical city of Sodom.[14] This finding received wide media attention when it was published in 2021 and was even used as a question on the Jeopardy! television game show.[2]

CRG members and supporters suggest that cosmic impact and/or airburst events destroyed the Pre-Pottery Neolithic village of Abu Hureyra in Syria around 12,800 years ago,[15][1] been witnessed by the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A residents of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey,[16] and destroyed what some interpret to have been the biblical city of Sodom (see below). Its members have developed and tend to favor the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (also known as the YDIH), which attributes climate change at the end of the Pleistocene to a massive impact extraterrestrial objects.[17] However, the role—if any—of comets in bringing about the end of the Pleistocene has been rejected by most subject matter experts[6].

Author Graham Hancock has suggested that these events resulted in an "ancient Apocalypse," a theory featured in an upcoming documentary series on Netflix.[18] Hancock has long been a supporter of the CRG and promoter of the YDIH.[19][20]

Criticism

Critics have charged that some members of the CRG promote pseudoscience, pseudoarchaeology, and pseudohistory, that they have engaged in cherry-picking of data based on confirmation bias, that they seek persuasion via the bandwagon fallacy, and that they have even engaged in intentional misrepresentations of archaeological and geological evidence. For example, physicist Mark Boslough, a specialist in planetary impact hazards and asteroid impact avoidance, has pointed out many problems with the credibility and motivations of individual CRG researchers and as well as with their specific claims for evidence in support of the YDIH and/or the effects of meteor air bursts or impact events on ancient settlements, people, and environments.[21]

Many doubts have been raised about the CRG's claims. [22] Image forensics expert Elisabeth Bik discovered evidence for digital alteration of images used as evidence that Tall el-Hammam was engulfed by an airburst.[23] CRG members initially denied tampering with the photos but eventually published a correction in which they admitted to inappropriate image manipulation.[24] Subsequent concerns that have been brought up in PubPeer have not yet been addressed by the CRG, including discrepancies between claimed blast wave direction compared to what the images show, unavailability of original image data to independent researchers, lack of supporting evidence for conclusions, inappropriate reliance on young Earth creationist literature, misinformation about the Tunguska explosion, and another uncorrected example of an inappropriately altered image.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b Barbuzano, Javier (April 6, 2020). "A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Mathews, Kristin Claes (August 17, 2022). "Comet chemist Wendy Wolbach's research featured on 'Jeopardy!'". DePaul University Newsline. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  3. ^ van Hoesel, Annelies; Hoek, Wim Z.; Pennock, Gillian M.; Drury, Martyn R. (1 January 2014). "The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: a critical review". Quaternary Science Reviews. 83: 95–114. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.10.033. ISSN 0277-3791. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  4. ^ Sweatman, Martin (3 November 2017). "Catastrophism through the ages, and a cosmic catastrophe at the origin of civilisation". Archaeology & Anthropology. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  5. ^ Feagans, Carl. "Buzzwords, Bogeymen, and Banalities of Pseudoarchaeology: Göbekli Tepe". Archaeology Review. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b Powell, James Lawrence (January 2022). "Premature rejection in science: The case of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis". Science Progress. 105 (1): 003685042110642. doi:10.1177/00368504211064272. ISSN 0036-8504. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  7. ^ Tankersley, Kenneth Barnett (2022). "The Hopewell airburst event, 1699–1567 years ago (252–383 CE)". Scientific Reports. 12 (1706).
  8. ^ Firestone, Richard; Allen West; Simon Warwick-Smith (2006). The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions - Bear & Co. ISBN 978-1591430612.
  9. ^ Aveni, Anthony (2009). The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-0870819612.
  10. ^ Aveni, Anthony (2016). Apocalyptic Anxiety: Religion, Science, and America's Obsession with the End of the World. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1607324706.
  11. ^ "Scientists & Members". Comet Research Group. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  12. ^ Bik, Elisabeth (2 October 2021). "Blast in the Past: Image concerns in paper about comet that might have destroyed Tall el-Hammam". Science Integrity Digest. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  13. ^ "Rising Light Media". Rising Light Media. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  14. ^ Bunch, Ted E.; LeCompte, Malcolm A.; Adedeji, A. Victor; Wittke, James H.; Burleigh, T. David; Hermes, Robert E.; Mooney, Charles; Batchelor, Dale; Wolbach, Wendy S.; Kathan, Joel; Kletetschka, Gunther; Patterson, Mark C. L.; Swindel, Edward C.; Witwer, Timothy; Howard, George A.; Mitra, Siddhartha; Moore, Christopher R.; Langworthy, Kurt; Kennett, James P.; West, Allen; Silvia, Phillip J. (December 2021). "A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 18632. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1118632B. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3. PMC 8452666. PMID 34545151.
  15. ^ Fernandez S (2020-03-06). "Fire from the Sky" (Press release). University of California, Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on 2021-07-06. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  16. ^ "Conjuring Up a Lost Civilization: An Analysis of the Claims Made by Graham Hancock in Magicians of the Gods". Skeptic Magazine. 22 March 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  17. ^ Ogden, Leslie Evans (April 1, 2018). "Hot Theory About Cool Event". Natural History. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  18. ^ Moore, Kasey. "Ancient Apocalypse: Graham Hancock to Present Netflix Original Docuseries". What's on Netflix. Netflix. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  19. ^ Hancock, Graham. "Comet Research Group". Graham Hancock. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  20. ^ Hancock, Graham. "Why Science Should Cherish Its Rebels". Graham Hancock. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  21. ^ Boslough, Mark (2022). "Sodom Meteor Strike Claims Should Be Taken with a Pillar of Salt" (PDF). Skeptical Inquirer. 46 (1): 10–14.
  22. ^ Marcus, Adam (1 October 2021). "Criticism engulfs paper claiming an asteroid destroyed Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  23. ^ Bik, Elisabeth (2 October 2021). "Blast in the Past: Image concerns in paper about comet that might have destroyed Tall el-Hammam". Science Integrity Digest. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  24. ^ Bunch, Ted E.; LeCompte, Malcolm A.; Adedeji, A. Victor; Wittke, James H.; Burleigh, T. David; Hermes, Robert E.; Mooney, Charles; Batchelor, Dale; et al., No label or title -- debug: Q111021706, Wikidata Q111021706 {{citation}}: |doi-access= requires |doi= (help)
  25. ^ Bunch, Ted E.; Lecompte, Malcolm A.; Adedeji, A. Victor; Wittke, James H.; Burleigh, T. David; Hermes, Robert E.; Mooney, Charles; Batchelor, Dale; Wolbach, Wendy S.; Kathan, Joel; Kletetschka, Gunther; Patterson, Mark C. L.; Swindel, Edward C.; Witwer, Timothy; Howard, George A.; Mitra, Siddhartha; Moore, Christopher R.; Langworthy, Kurt; Kennett, James P.; West, Allen; Silvia, Phillip J. (September 2021). "A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 18632. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3. PMC 8452666. PMID 34545151. Retrieved 9 August 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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