Christopher R. MooreSouth Carolina Department of Natural Resources · Heritage Trust Program
Christopher R. Moore
Ph.D. (ECU_Geoscience)
About
46
Publications
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Introduction
Current research includes ongoing geoarchaeological investigations of Carolina bays in the Central Savannah River Area of South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. My specific interests include site formation processes and geochronology. Other research projects include lithic sourcing of metavolcanic and metasedimentary stone quarries and artifacts using Neodymium isotope ratio analysis and rare-earth elements.
Education
August 2003 - May 2009
August 1997 - May 2000
January 1995 - May 1997
Publications
Publications (46)
Previously, a large platinum (Pt) anomaly was reported in the Greenland ice sheet at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) (12,800 Cal B.P.). In order to evaluate its geographic extent, fire-assay and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (FA and ICP-MS) elemental analyses were performed on 11 widely separated archaeological bulk sedimentary sequ...
![Table 2 . Grain size statistics for core samples (Folk and Ward [phi]...](profile/Peter-Parham/publication/297716466/figure/tbl2/AS:670420026011657@1536851998821/Grain-size-statistics-for-core-samples-Folk-and-Ward-phi-method-and-sedimentary_Q320.jpg)
Geological investigations of Herndon Bay, a Carolina bay in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina (USA), provide evidence for rapid basin scour and migration during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 of the late Pleisto-cene. LiDAR data show a regressive sequence of sand rims that partially backfill the remnant older portions of the bay, with evidence for...
Results of protein residue and lithic microwear analyses are reported for Paleoindian and Early Archaic stone tools from a Carolina bay sand rim on the Aiken Plateau of South Carolina, USA. Protein residue analysis is performed using crossover Immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), and indicates positive results for Bovidae, Cervidae, Galliformes, and Melea...
Competing models of Early Archaic settlement in the Southeast propose broad-scale organization conditioned by either lithic raw material availability or seasonal exploitation of biotic resources and social interaction. We offer a view from beyond the quarries and away from the river with data from the North Carolina Sandhills, a unique physiographi...
Airbursts/impacts by a fragmented comet or asteroid have been proposed at the Younger Dryas onset (12.80 ± 0.15 ka) based on identification of an assemblage of impact-related proxies, including microspherules, nanodiamonds, and iridium. Distributed across four continents at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB), spherule peaks have been independently co...
We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000× more energy than the Hiroshima atom...
The Younger Dryas (YD) impact hypothesis proposes that fragments of a large, disintegrating asteroid/comet struck the Earth ∼12,800 years ago. This event simultaneously deposited high concentrations of platinum, high-temperature spherules, melt glass and nanodiamonds into the YD boundary layer (YDB) at >50 sites worldwide. Here, we report on a ∼12,...
Supplementary information
A widespread platinum (Pt) anomaly was recently documented in Greenland ice and 11 North American sedimentary sequences at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) event (~12,800 cal yr BP), consistent with the YD Impact Hypothesis. We report high-resolution analyses of a 1-meter section of a lake core from White Pond, South Carolina, USA. After develop...
Raw data and references for Table S7 in Moore et al. (2017) Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences. Scientific Reports, Sci Rep., 44031. doi: 10.1038/srep44031
Table compares Pt, Pd, Pt/Pd concentrations at Younger Dryas Boundary to values for Impactites (65 Ma, 145 Ma, 2.55 Ga), M...
The Younger Dryas (YD) impact hypothesis posits that fragments of a large, disintegrating asteroid/comet struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia ~12,800 years ago. Multiple airbursts/impacts produced the YD boundary layer (YDB), depositing peak concentrations of platinum, high-temperature spherules, meltglass, and nanodiamonds...
Archaeological site investigations on the South Atlantic Coastal Plain have revealed stratified cultural remains in sand deposits of mixed aeolian and fluvial origins, aeolian sand sheets and dunes, alluvial terraces, and Carolina Bay rims. These sites are typically shallow but have yielded discernible archaeostratigraphy within sand dominated depo...
The Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) cosmic-impact hypothesis is based on considerable evidence that Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating ≥100-km-diameter comet, the remnants of which persist within the inner solar system ∼12,800 y later. Evidence suggests that the YDB cosmic impact triggered an “impact winter” and the subsequent Younger D...
Part 1 of this study investigated evidence of biomass burning in global ice records, and here we continue to test the hypothesis that an impact event at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) caused an anomalously intense episode of biomass burning at ∼12.8 ka on a multicontinental scale (North and South America, Europe, and Asia). Quantitative analyses...
Squires Ridge is a multicomponent, stratified site situated atop a relict sand dune along the Tar River in eastern North Carolina. Based upon temporally diagnostic artifacts and chronometric dates, three occupation zones (Early Archaic and Middle Archaic, Late Archaic and Early/Middle Woodland) are buried within the upper meter of aeolian sand. Tre...
The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis posits that a cosmic impact across much of the Northern Hemisphere deposited the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) layer, containing peak abundances in a variable assemblage of proxies, including magnetic and glassy impact-related spherules, high-temperature minerals and melt glass, nanodiamonds, carbon spherules, aci...
A sediment column (0-110 cm) from Squires Ridge (38ED365), a stratified archaeological site on the Tar River in North Carolina, was analyzed to evaluate magnetic microspherules and other geochemical markers reported for the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB). Here we report on microspherules using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersiv...
Ongoing geomorphological fieldwork at Herndon Bay in northern Robeson County, North Carolina, has revealed evidence for rapid bay basin scour and landform migration. LiDAR data show a regressive sequence of sand rims that partially backfill the remnant older bay basin, with bay migration of more than 600 meters to the northwest. Similarly, other ba...
Since 2000, East Carolina University has conducted archaeological research in the Tar River valley in the northern Coastal Plain of North Carolina designed to address poorly understood aspects of the region’s culture-history. In particular, survey and excavation along a portion of the Tar River have focused on problems related to Coastal Plain chro...
Studies of settlement, mobility, and social structure of foraging societies have relied heavily on research employing an organization of lithic technology approach (e.g., Amick and Carr 1996; Anderson and Hanson 1988; Binford 1977, 1979, 1980; Daniel 1998; Goodyear 1979; Goodyear et al. 1979; Sassaman et al. 1988; Shott 1986; Walthall and Holley 19...
In science, one should never assume to know truth, only closer and closer approximations of reality. To do otherwise is to become a slave to ideological or intellectual dogma. In practice, within any particular scientific paradigm, truth is often assumed to be the consensus view of intellectual gatekeepers. In this regard, it seems the consensus vi...
An analysis of LiDAR data for various coastal counties in North Carolina along with areas recently made available in South Carolina have revealed visual evidence for widespread and large-scale (i.e., kilometers long) eolian activity in the Coastal Plain uplands. These generally low-relief geomorphic features include large swaths or ribbons of coale...
A decade ago, Ward and Davis (1999:226) noted that the North Carolina Coastal Plain was ―arguably the least understood of all the major physiographic regions in the state.‖ That statement is still particularly applicable to our understanding of the archaeology of the Paleoindian and Archaic periods in the region. In part, this knowledge gap reflect...
Recent geoarchaeological work on relict aeolian deposits in the North Carolina Coastal Plain has shown the potential for understanding prehistoric hunter-gatherer adaptations to changing environmental conditions likely related to Holocene climate change. Archaeological surveys and testing along the Tar River has revealed numerous sites with stratif...
Geophysical surveys, sedimentology, and optically-stimulated luminescence age analyses were used to assess the geologic development of a coastal system near Swansboro, NC. This area is a significant Woodland Period Native American habitation and is designated the "Broad Reach" archaeological site. 2-d and 3-d subsurface geophysical surveys were per...
Decades of archaeological work on Fort Bragg have revealed thousands of prehistoric sites that were inhabited by Indian peoples before the arrival of the Europeans. It is believed that many of these sites were temporary camps occupied by hunters and gatherers whose territories extended far beyond the boundaries of the modern fort. Thus, understandi...
Thesis (M.A.)--East Carolina University, 2000. Submitted to the faculty of the Department of Anthropology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [90]-97).
Questions
Questions (4)
Bond Events 1-8 are indicated as 1400, 2800, 4300, 5900, 8200. 9500, 10300, and 11,100 kya, but I don't see anything that indicates how long each of these climate events lasted.
Has anyone ever seen aeolian features like these (see PDF of poster below)? In particular, the linear and rectangular shaped "deflation surfaces" visible on some of hte LiDAR images on this poster. For example, zoom in on the LiDAR for Marlboro County, SC. I'm still trying to understand how these form.
We have Clovis tools made from weathered Coastal Plain Chert. I'm also interested in this analysis on metavolcanic stone tools from North and South Carolina.
Does anyone know of any studies that look at stable isotopes preserved (presumably within clay skins on sand grains) from coastal alluvial deposits or relict dunes? I have sediment columns from several stratified archaeological sites in North and South Carolina. These sites have archaeological material from late Pleistocene through late Holocene. Any chance these sediments could provide information on climate change through an analysis of stable isotopes?
Projects
Projects (3)
Search for evidence of impacts associated with mass extinctions. Evidence can be direct, such as impact-generated nanodiamonds, or indirect, in the form of soot from impact-triggered wildfires.
To provide a repository of easily accessed publication concerning the Younger Dryas cosmic impact.
