[meteorite-list] Re: Terrestrial Impact Craters, Rainbow Serpents & Tektites

From: chris sharp <casper_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:10 2004
Message-ID: <009601c24105$2f248680$55012bca_at_ringtail>

Hello again from Terra Australis

Surfing the web last night I found this interesting map
which gives a good topographic representation of Australia.
(Thank you to Tolonqua at ASU)

http://www.public.asu.edu/~tolonqua/AUSMAP/australia-app.HTM
L

Ayers Rock is located at (decimal)

25.35 South
131.03 East

Can anyone else make out a large circular structure in this
vicinity?
There seem to be a number of other circular features
unrelated to known craters on this map, eg 28 South, 124
East looks like it might be a double crater.

I remember reading the collected letters of one of the first
policemen based in the Central Australia area. He was
corresponding with a professor in London who was interested
in the "obsidian" that the Aborigines were bringing in to
exchange for rations. He actually sent large shipments of
the stuff back to England around the turn of the century.

>From memory, his observation was that most of the glass came
from "to the north and west". I think he was based on the
Telegraph line at Charlotte Waters. I will have to get to
the library to check.

As an aside, where I live, one of the tourist attractions is
"The Coloured Sands". The aboriginal dreamtime legend that
describes the origins of these sands, mentions a "Rainbow
Serpent" that came to Earth and broke into a multitude of
pieces giving the colour in the dunes.

I could imagine that a bolide that explosively impacted
would fit the description nicely- an impressive fire ball
with a multitude of colours, a long smoke trail, drifting
(writhing) around in the sky.

A couple more cents (anything but the dog and political
correctness!)
chris sharp

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tracy Latimer" <tracyl_at_lib.state.hi.us>
To: <littlejo_at_ctc.net>
Cc: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2002 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Terrestrial Impact Craters in
Unconsolidated Sediments Questions?


| I think that any crater in loose sediments would likely be
filled in
| rapidly by the same mechanisms that deposited the sediment
in the |first place. You might, for a while, be able to
track the crater by |deformation in the surrounding
sedimentary layers, but eventually it |would all even out,
leaving barely a ruffle in the geologic record. |Only
craters in hard, non-disappearing rock, not sludgy mud,
would have a chance of remaining long enough for us to
discover them.
|
| Tracy Latimer
Received on Sun 11 Aug 2002 03:03:22 AM PDT