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Cannae Battlefield: a geomorphic-geoarchaeologic perspective

Mahaney William C.

Studia Quaternaria

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2024

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Vol. 41, Nr 1

37--42

EN

The Cannae Battlefield (216 BC), a pivotal engagement during the Second Punic War, led to the destruction of one of the largest consular armies ever raised by the Republic. Historians have for centuries paid the utmost attention to unit-by-unit dispositions and tactical maneuvers without studying the local geology and particularly the geomorphology of the battle site. A brief traverse over the battle site, adjacent to the museum in 2004, led to a hidden defile, heretofore not mentioned in the literature, one which may have helped turn the tide for the Carthaginians, and offering prospect of further geoarchaeological investigation.

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The Encke comet impact/airburst and the Younger Dryas Boundary: Testing the impossible hypothesis (YDIH)

Mahaney William C., Somelar Peeter

Geologos

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2024

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Vol. 30, No. 1

17--31

EN

Many have tagged the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH), a supposition, lacking convincing evidence in support. The core of criticism lies squarely on uniformitarianism, that is, uniform processes moving uniformly with no room for catastrophic events, specifically cosmic catastrophic forces. Beyond philosophically based aversion to the YDIH, specific criticism comes from megafauna and archaeologic corners, related to the near coeval disappearance of specific Late Pleistocene species on the one hand, and relation to disruption and temporary disappearance of the Clovis people et al. on the other. The Younger Dryas geologic paradigm, originally in place with meltwater release into the Atlantic in tow, attention slowly drifted to explanation of an innocuous looking, thin (~1-3 cm), black sediment bed found in lacustrine and fluvial deposits of the American southwest, and other intercontinental places. Thus, with thin dark beds of Gubbio in mind, the quest to explain black mat (BM) beds took on a cosmic aspect, one with growing, supporting evidence on several continents. The impossible hypothesis, now the probable explanation of the Younger Dryas climatic reversal, is at center stage, set at 12.8 ka, with a burgeoning corpus of evidence its cornerstone.

3

Critical assessment of Jenny’s soil forming equation in light of cosmic airbursts on the Viso Massif

Mahaney William C.

Geologos

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2023

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Vol. 29, No. 3

183--195

EN

Jenny’s soil formation equation places soil morphogenesis as a response to climate (cl), biota (o), relief (r), parent material (p), and time (t), written thus: s= f (cl, o, r, p, t…), where each variable is considered independent. Because some soils and paleosols contain cosmic impact/airburst evidence, recent soil morphogenesis research requires a rewritten equation: s= f (cl, o, r, p, t, c…), where c = cosmic. This addition serves to alert researchers to the presence of cosmic input to soils under investigation as part of geological and geomorphological projects. In particular, research targeting the cause of the Younger Dryas Climatic Divide (YDCD) might focus only on pollen in European glaciolacustrine sediments, reversal of the marine thermohaline circulation in the N. Atlantic Ocean, and possible reversal of postglacial warming at the Allerød termination (12.8 ka), when a search for cosmic grains may change the research outcome. Hence, the importance of the ‘c’ addition to Jenny’s factor analysis of soil morphogenesis.

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Origin, weathering and paleoclimatic significance of Middle-Late Pleistocene slope covers, Mt. Kenya, Kenya

Mahaney William C., Hancock Ronald G. V.

Studia Quaternaria

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2022

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Vol. 39, Nr 2

51--81

EN

Stacks of the Pleistocene tills and associated airfall/slopewash/colluvial sediment abound on East African Mountains but few localities exist where thick deposits of middle to Late Pleistocene age can be studied to bedrock with topography the main soil-forming agent over <0.8 Ma. Two tills form the main structure of the catena, the oldest buried in the crest, backslope and footslope of the deposit, the youngest forming the crest and upper backslope, with massive colluvial infill forming a still younger sediment mass superposed on older sediment in the lower backslope, footslope and toeslope, the latter all radiocarbon dated to within the last glaciation (Liki on Mt. Kenya; Weichselian in Europe, Wisconsin in North America). The moraine stack, first identified by J.W. Gregory in the late 19th century, as belonging to the 'Older Glaciation' (Illinoian in North America; Teleki on Mt. Kenya), is much older than originally thought with tills and other paraglacial sediment extending to saprolitic bedrock, paleomagnetic assessment and relative weathering indices placing the mass in the Brunhes Chron. These results demonstrate that despite erosion and weathering, paleosols in toposequences near the margins of successive glaciations retain properties allowing reconstruction of environmental changes over long periods of time.