# Impact hypothesis · Concept

> The proposal that a comet or asteroid strike caused a past event on Earth.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW046HBQE/impact-hypothesis  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Concepts](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts)Impact hypothesis

Concept · geology · in 2 mysteries

# Impact hypothesis

The proposal that a comet or asteroid strike caused a past event on Earth.

[Skinwalker Ranch](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/skinwalker-ranch)[Younger Dryas impact hypothesis](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/younger-dryas-impact)

An explanation that puts an impact behind a sudden change: an extinction, a climate reversal, a destroyed site. The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis and Tunguska are the site's two cases. The evidence an impact leaves is specific (a crater, shocked minerals, platinum-group metals, glassy spherules), so the argument is usually over whether the claimed markers are what they are said to be and whether they date to the moment claimed.

## Where it comes up

**[Skinwalker Ranch](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/skinwalker-ranch)**

[NASA CNEOS fireball and bolide reports, 1988 to present](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0D015R1E0M1A/nasa-cneos-fireball-and-bolide-reports-1988-to-present)

**[Younger Dryas impact hypothesis](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/younger-dryas-impact)**

The impact hypothesis says that at the onset the Earth passed through the debris of a large fragmenting comet, whose airbursts and impacts deposited a thin boundary layer (the "YDB") across North America, Europe, the…

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Impact hypothesis [Concept CPT0DECW046HBQE]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW046HBQE
```

Key

**CPT** 0DECW046HBQE

Record

Concept

Field

Geology

Related

[Stratigraphy](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW01M0SC0/stratigraphy) · [Airburst](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW04CQFHJ/airburst)

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**How this page is made.** The definition is the site's, in its own words. “Where it comes up” is read from the answers, methods and evidence that name the concept.

Related concepts

[Stratigraphy](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW01M0SC0/stratigraphy)[Airburst](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW04CQFHJ/airburst)

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