Leading scientists from around the nation will debate the ongoing controversy over whether a comet impact caused rapid climate changes on Earth during a national meeting Aug. 12-15 at the University of Wyoming.
The comet controversy is among several scientific issues to be examined during the 21st biennial meeting of the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA) at UW.
AMQUA is an international scientific organization comprising geologists, climatologists, archeologists, ecologists, oceanographers, geochemists, geographers and other scientists, all of whose interests center on the environmental dynamics of the past two million years of Earth's history. The meeting will focus on environmental changes during the rapid warming and final glacial retreat in the Americas between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago.
International speakers will cover topics including human occupation of the Americas, large mammal extinctions, ancient DNA, landscape evolution and ice-sheet dynamics. The comet controversy will be examined during afternoon sessions Saturday, Aug. 14, in Room 129 of the UW Classroom Building.
See http://quaternary.uwyo.edu/amqua2010/index.html for general information, and http://quaternary.uwyo.edu/amqua2010/speakers.html for information about the program and schedule.
