These findings are reason to be gravely concerned about the effects of a Galactic core explosion because they imply that the cosmic rays generated can impact our planet virtually without warning, accompanying the light arriving from the initial core outburst.^{(5, 11, 12)}  A study of astronomical and geological data reveals that a superwave from our Galactic core impacted our solar system near the end of the last ice age, 11,000 to 16,000 years ago.^{(13, 14)}. This cosmic ray event spanned a period of several thousand years and climaxed between 15,900 and 12,000 years ago.  Although far less intense than the PG 0052+251 quasar outburst, it nevertheless was able to substantially affect the Earth's climate and energize the Sun.  Data obtained from polar ice core samples show evidence of this cosmic ray event as well as other cosmic ray intensity peaks from superwaves impacting the Earth at earlier times (Figure 5).^{(11, 15)}

Figure 5. Graph showing that cosmic ray intensity has varied considerably during the past hundred twenty thousand years.  Lower profile: Cosmic ray intensity at the Earth's surface calculated from variations in the concentration of beryllium-10 in the ice record adjusted for changes in ice accumulation rate.  Upper profile: Global temperature. Climatic zones include: the present interglacial (1), last ice age (stages 2, 3, & 4), previous semi-glaciated period (stage 5a-d), last interglacial (stage 5e), and previous glaciation (stage 6).

[An explanation of how this cosmic ray intensity profile was calculated from published beryllium-10 data is presented in the update to Dr. LaViolette's dissertation and in the appendix of a paper preprint available for download.]

   Figure 6 shows the position in the Galaxy of the 15,900 years before 2000 (b2k) superwave when viewed at differing times following the time it passed through the solar system.⁽⁵⁾  This elliptical shape of the event horizon is determined by the time it takes the cosmic ray electrons to travel radially outward from the Galactic center at the speed of light plus the time it takes the synchrotron radiation generated by those cosmic ray electrons to reach us at the speed of light.  As the superwave expands outward through the galaxy with the passage of millennia, the ellipticity of its event horizon progressively decreases.  LaViolette found that the cosmic ray intensity along this ellipsoidal event horizon shell fits the galactic radio background distribution better than any other previous cosmic ray model.  He also found that supernova explosion dates coincided with times when the superwave was passing the progenitor star's location, suggesting that superwaves trigger these explosions.

Figure 6.  A galactic coordinate map (polar coordinates) plotting galactic longitude versus distance from the solar system in kiloparsecs that views face down onto the galactic plane (sectioning the galaxy at 0° galactic latitude).  The animation shows the event horizon as its position would appear to an Earth observer for various times following its initial passage. The event horizon appears as an ellipse with the Galactic center located at the upper focus and the Earth at the lower focus.  Also shown are the positions of young supernova remnants. © P. LaViolette 2011

    The effects on the Sun and on the Earth's climate were not due to the superwave cosmic rays themselves, but to the cosmic dust that these cosmic rays transported into the solar system.  Observations have shown that the solar system is presently passing through a dense cloud of cosmic dust and frozen debris associated with the North Polar Spur supernova remnant.  This material is normally kept at bay by the outward pressure of the solar wind.  But, an impacting superwave cosmic ray volley would have overpowered the solar wind and pushed large quantities of this material into the interplanetary environment.  The Sun would have become enveloped in a cocoon of dust that would have caused its spectrum to shift toward the infrared.  Radiation back scattered from this cocoon would have caused the Sun's corona and photosphere to inflate, somewhat like that observed today in dust-choked stars called "T Tauri stars.".  In addition, the dust grains filling the solar system would have back scattered solar radiation onto the Earth, producing an "interplanetary hothouse effect" that would have substantially increased the influx of solar radiation to the Earth.  These various solar effects caused atmospheric warming and inversion conditions that facilitated glacial growth which brought on ice age conditions.  On occasions when the solar radiation influx to the Earth became particularly high, the ice age climate warmed, initiating episodes of rapid glacial melting and continental flooding.  
    Details of this scenario are described in the book Earth Under Fire,⁽¹²⁾ in Paul LaViolette's Ph.D. dissertation,⁽¹⁶⁾ as well as in a series of journal articles he has published.^{(6, 7, 13, 16­18)}  LaViolette's prediction that there is a residual flow of interstellar dust currently entering the solar system from the Galactic center direction was later verified by data collected from the Ulysses spacecraft and by AMOR radar measurements made in New Zealand.⁽¹⁸⁾  For a listing of related theory predictions and their verification click here.

    Research suggests that the Sun was highly active between 16,000 and 11,000 years ago; see dissertation excerpt Chapter 4.  LaViolette hypothesized that this extreme level of flaring activity resulted because the Sun was accreting dust and gas from its dust congested surroundings during this superwave "storm interval".  During this time the sun would have emitted super-sized solar proton events (SPEs), intense volleys of solar cosmic rays, and super coronal mass ejections (CMEs), immense spherical masses of coronal plasma.  These would have been large enough to have posed an extreme hazard for life on Earth.  There is evidence that one particularly tragic SPE impacted the Earth around 12,900 years ago, evidence of which is recorded in ocean sediments and polar ice as a spike in both atmospheric C-14 and nitrate ion concentration, the largest to occur during the entire Younger Dryas/Alleröd climatic period.⁽¹⁹⁾  This event happened to coincide with the termination boundary of the two millennium-long Pleistocene mass extinction, beyond which one finds few surviving Pleistocene mammals.  This is believed to have been the worst animal extinction episode to occur since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
    It is not much of an inductive leap to conclude that these two events were causally related.  As LaViolette has shown, the 12,887 years b2k solar proton event would have been able to deliver a lethal radiation dose to the Earth's surface.  Its effects would have been particularly enhanced if, immediately prior to the event, the Earth's magnetic field had been weakened by the impact of major coronal mass ejection.  Solar cosmic rays in the CME plasma would have become trapped in the geomagnetic field to form storm time radiation belts and the ring current generated by these cosmic rays would have generated a strong magnetic field opposed to the Earth's field, substantially weakening its intensity.^{(5, 12)}  For more about solar-induced geomagnetic excursions, see dissertation excerpt Chapter 3 and Verified Prediction No. 10.  A critique of the Firestone-West supernova comet theory is presented in the paper "The cause of the megafaunal extinction: Supernova or Galactic core outburst?".

   

Animation of a coronal mass ejection leaving the Sun and eventually impacting the Earth's magnetosphere (courtesy of SOHO [ESA & NASA]).

The extinction of the mammoths and other Pleistocene megafauna could have been caused by the impact of a supersized solar proton event that may have produced lethal radiation levels on the Earth's surface.

    Abrupt climatic warming induced by elevated levels of solar radiation reaching the Earth would have melted the surface of the ice sheets and caused perched meltwater lakes to form on the ice sheet surface.  A dam failure of one of these lakes would have produced a meltwater avalanche that would have grown in size as it traveled across the ice sheet and accumulated the contents of perched lakes along its path.  The result would have been a wave of meltwater reaching a height of 500 meters or more and travelling forward at hundreds of kilometers per hour.  LaViolette coined the term glacier wave to refer to this phenomenon.⁽⁵⁾  See Verified Prediction No. 12.  The occurrence of global warmings during the Alleröd and at the time of this 12,887 years b2k SPE/CME event would explain why many of the extinct megafauna are found interred in flood deposits.

Animation showing a glacier wave growing in size and speed as it descends to the edge of the ice sheet. © P. LaViolette 2011   Artist's conception of a small size glacier wave land tsunami overtaking a mammoth unawares.