Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ancient crater points to massive meteorite strike
EurekAlert! ^ | May 7, 2014 | Bryan Alary, University of Alberta

Posted on 05/13/2014 3:39:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

"We know that the impact occurred within the last 70 million years, and in that time about 1.5 km of sediment has been eroded. That makes it really hard to pin down and actually date the impact."

Erosion has worn away all but the "roots" of the crater, leaving a semicircular depression eight kilometres across with a central peak. Schmitt says that when it formed, the crater likely reached a depth of 1.6 to 2.4 km—the kind of impact his graduate student Wei Xie calculated would have had devastating consequences for life in the area.

"An impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance," he said. "If it happened today, Calgary (200 km to the northwest) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (500 km northwest), every window would have been blown out. Something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air, potentially would have global consequences; there could have been ramifications for decades."

The impact site was first discovered in 2009 by geologist Paul Glombick, who at the time was working on a geological map of the area for the Alberta Geological Survey. Glombick relied on existing geophysical log data from the oil and gas industry when he discovered a bowl-shaped structure.

The Alberta Geological Survey contacted the U of A and Schmitt to explore further, peeking into the earth by analyzing seismic data donated by industry. Schmitt's student, Todd Brown, later confirmed a crater-like structure.

The research team's paper about the discovery was published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science in an early online release.

(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: alberta; bowcitycrater; canada; catastrophism; paulglombick
This is a map showing the structure and contour of the Bow City crater. Color variation shows meters above sea level. Credit: Alberta Geographic Survey/University of Alberta

This is a map showing the structure and contour of the Bow City crater. Color variation shows meters above sea level.

1 posted on 05/13/2014 3:39:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Renfield; 75thOVI; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; ...
Thanks Renfield. May turn out to be a "doublet" impact basically simultaneous with Chicxulub.

2 posted on 05/13/2014 3:41:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
The first hints about the impact site near the southern Alberta hamlet of Bow City

Not much left of it. Behind the sign you can faintly make out the foundation of the old general store, next to that used to be a garage, I have found old oil cans and other parts in the field there in the past.


3 posted on 05/13/2014 4:08:36 PM PDT by caveat emptor (!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”

~Plato




help support the most conservative online site
click the pic


4 posted on 05/13/2014 4:09:18 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I’ve had a theory for some years, the much of the Rockies was caused by an array of objects that came to earth, affecting a north-to-south axis, crumpling the earth’s crust. The crater mentioned in the article, would be in the northern range of these impacts.

One of the largest of the southern-most (within the U.S. states) impacts would be the Caldera, where Los Alamos is located (eastern slope), and Redondo is the roughly central peak that resulted from the splash.

I suspect that the earth in areas distantly around the Caldera, but not near and of the Caldera, prior to that impact, was a crust resting upon enormous caverns and voids, thru some of which flowed molten material consisting of very high concentrations of metal (particularly east of present day Los Alamos ... about 10 - 18 miles. (This material was *not* released by the impact.)

South of the Caldera, the land rested upon mostly hollow caverns and voids, which collapsed when the impact occurred -— because of vibration and because of the weight of the debris released by the impact.


5 posted on 05/13/2014 4:15:14 PM PDT by First_Salute (May God save our democratic-republican government, from a government by judiciary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
I am most familiar with geographic coordinates, degrees/minutes/seconds.
Does anyone have a clue what coordinate system is used on the map related to the article/post?

Is there a reason why the coordinates of the crater center is not given?

6 posted on 05/13/2014 6:24:23 PM PDT by publius911 ( At least Nixon had the good grace to resign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: publius911; All

A miles line would help too.


7 posted on 05/13/2014 9:02:42 PM PDT by gleeaikin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: publius911

I reckon it is somewhere on Earth. 3rd rock from the Sun.
Earth location: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Earth%27s_Location_in_the_Universe_SMALLER_%28JPEG%29.jpg

Map showing crater loction near Calgary
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/huge-ancient-meteorite-crater-found-in-southern-alberta-1.2635289


8 posted on 05/13/2014 9:27:35 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson