The human dimensions of cosmic impact: an analysis of South America's myths of the "Great Fire"
by
W. Bruce Masse
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Physical scientists, policy makers, and the general public are becoming increasingly aware that the Earth is periodically subject to impacts by asteroids, comets, and small meteorites. It is now generally accepted that cosmic impacts played a significant role in climate change and biological evolution in the distant geological past. However, the current view by science is that major regional and globally catastrophic impacts have not occurred during the past 20,000 years, and that such impacts, while possible, are unlikely to occur during the next several thousand years. Few archaeologists, anthropologists, and paleoenvironmental specialists have included consideration of cosmic impacts in their analysis of the physical record of humankind. Major natural catastrophes (e.g., “universal” floods, fire, darkness, and cold) are prominently reflected in traditional South American creation myths, cosmology, religion, and worldview. The present study examines myths from cultural groups in the Gran Chaco region of South America (Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina) and in Brazil that relate to a cataclysmic “great fire” of celestial origin. The suite of environmental information contained in these myths does not conform to the physical characteristics of a volcanic eruption, and instead suggests that during the past 12,000 years one or more catastrophic cosmic impacts occurred in, and severely impacted, the region defined by central Argentina and the Gran Chaco. These data are weighed against our present understanding of the presumed Holocene period Campo del Cielo and Rio Cuarto impacts in northern Argentina. The combined data imply that our current analytical methods and theoretical paradigms have limited our ability to recognize and understand the historic record of cosmic impact. The physical and cultural record of humankind provides a largely untapped database that can help refine astrophysical, geological, and environmental models concerning the risk and effects of cosmic impact and other major natural catastrophes.

Date received: February 28, 2002