[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Wabar Crater ages (was: Bronze Age Catastrophes)
- To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Subject: Wabar Crater ages (was: Bronze Age Catastrophes)
- From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman@usgs.gov>
- Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 13:19:54 -0500
- Cc: "Jeffrey C Wynn Reston, VA "<jwynn@usgs.gov>
- Old-X-Envelope-To: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
- Reply-To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Resent-Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 13:22:59 -0500 (EST)
- Resent-From: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
- Resent-Message-ID: <"RIgjWC.A.u8B.Q_vg0"@mu.pair.com>
- Resent-Sender: meteorite-list-request@meteoritecentral.com
Okay, here's the deal on Wabar from Jeff Wynn (jwynn@usgs.gov):
The paper with Shoemaker is in review, and under some negotiation
with regard to its final publication place, so I can't give a ref.
You can check out the abstract by Shoemaker and Wynn (Lunar and
Planetary Sci. 28, 1313-1314 (1997), or, if you have Adobe Acrobat
reader, it's at:
http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/meetings/lpsc97/pdf/SESS37.PDF.
This mentions the probable young age. You can also check out
http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/emrst/wynn/3wabar.html
for a short paper that does not mention much about the age.
The latest evidence for a young age is:
1) New thermoluminescence dates on the sands underlying the craters
give <600 years.
2) The craters are supported by an extremely fragile rim
structure that seems unlikely to have survived 1000's of years.
3) The largest crater has shallowed from 12 m deep in the
1930's, to 5-8 m in the 1960's to 1-3 m in the 1990's,
and so, by extrapolation, it is unlikely that it could be
very old.
4) A bright bolide (called "the Nejd") accompanied by sonic
booms was seen over Riyadh in spring, 1863, headed exactly in
the direction (SE) of the present Wabar craters. The distribution
of ejecta around the crater is consistent with a low-angle
impact from the northwest.
-Jeff Grossman
Follow-Ups: