Mid-24th century BCE climate anomaly facts for kids

The mid-24th century BCE climate anomaly was a time between 2354 and 2345 BCE when the Earth got colder. Scientists figured this out by looking at old Irish oak trees. The rings inside these trees were unusually thin for several years in a row. Thin tree rings show that the trees didn't grow much, probably because the weather was too cold or dry.

This cold period happened around the same time that people in the British Isles were moving from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) to the Bronze Age. It also matches a time when many societies in the Ancient Near East faced big problems and even collapsed. Some scientists think this sudden cold snap might have been caused by dust and debris from a comet or asteroid hitting the Earth, which would have blocked sunlight.

What Caused the Climate Anomaly?

Scientists have different ideas about what caused this big change in climate.

The Idea of a Natural Disaster

In 1997, a scientist named Marie-Agnès Courty suggested that a huge natural disaster happened around 2350 BCE. She thought it involved massive wildfires, floods, and a giant air blast, like a huge explosion. She based this idea on strange "dust" layers found at old archaeological sites in Mesopotamia, which were hundreds of kilometers apart. Later, she changed her estimated date for this event to around 2000 BCE.

Could a Lake Be a Crater?

Some people have looked at satellite pictures of Umm al Binni lake in southern Iraq. They thought it might be a crater made by something from space hitting the Earth, and that this impact could have caused the natural disaster. However, more recent studies suggest that the lake probably formed in a different way. It might have happened when the ground underneath it sank because of shifting fault blocks (large sections of the Earth's crust).

Tree Rings and Dust Layers

In 2015, scientists Baillie and McAneney talked about the very thin Irish tree rings and the unusual dust layers found by Courty. They discussed how these things point to a major climate event. However, their paper did not mention Umm al Binni lake as a possible cause.

See also

• 4.2-kiloyear event, c. 2200 BCE
• Great Flood (China), c. 2300 BCE