Younger Dryas impact hypothesis
![The orientation of the various Carolina Bay populations focus on one or two locations, indicating that the formation of the Bays is connected to these focus-points.](/Images/godic/202502/21/Firestone_carolina_bays2355.jpg")
![Forest destroyed by the prototypical Tunguska airburst event](/Images/godic/202502/21/Tunguska_event_fallen_trees2355.jpg")
The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, also known as the Clovis comet hypothesis, is one of the competing scientific explanations for the onset of the Younger Dryas cold period after the last glacial period. The hypothesis, which scientists continue to debate, proposes that the climate of that time was cooled by the impact or air burst of one or more comets.