The Bronze Age Collapse May Have Had a Cosmic Trigger

Randall puts a number on something most people have never considered as a repeating pattern. Within the Holocene alone - the last 11,700 years of human history - Randall estimates that civilisation-level collapse has occurred somewhere between half a dozen and ten times. The Bronze Age collapse is one of the most studied examples, but its cause remains contested.

The answer may not be singular. Randall points to the possibility of a perfect storm scenario - one in which volcanic and extraterrestrial events occur simultaneously, compounding each other's effects into something no civilisation could absorb. Either alone might be survivable. Both together may not be.

What makes this more than speculation is emerging evidence that the relationship between cosmic and terrestrial events may run deeper than simple coincidence. Airburst events and impacts generate enormous mass transfers across the Earth's surface. Randall argues there is now evidence suggesting these oxygenic events - the sudden energetic interactions with the upper atmosphere and surface - may actually function as triggers for terrestrial responses including volcanism and seismic activity. If that relationship is real, then the perfect storm is not just a coincidence of timing. It may be a causal chain.