[meteorite-list] Debris from Massive Asteroid is Uncovered

From: geoking_at_notkin.net <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:18 2004
Message-ID: <v04220804ba0c025b9744_at_[65.59.99.186]>

Happy Turkey Day to all our American listees.

Here is a short but interesting recent article from London.

Dave Harris, I think you should get over there and check it out for
us. Only a few hours' drive for you : )


Regards,

Geoff N.


************


 From London's "Independent"

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=352216

By Steve Connor Science Editor

15 November 2002



Scientists at a geological site near Bristol have unearthed evidence
of a massive prehistoric explosion millions of times more powerful
than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

An asteroid more than three miles wide that crashed into what is now
north-east Canada at a speed of 10 miles per second 214 million years
ago ejected a plume of debris that settled over the British Isles.

It is the first time scientists in Britain have detected a layer of
impact debris from an asteroid collision. A similar collision 65
million years ago is thought to have contributed to the end of
dinosaurs, allowing the rise of warm-blooded mammals including man.

The latest discovery is from a much earlier collision and is a result
of a catastrophic impact that vaporised rock and spewed a sea of
molten glass droplets half way across the world.

George Walkden, who led the research team from the University of
Aberdeen and the Open University, said the droplets of molten glass
became fossilised as a layer two centimetres thick, now eight metres
below ground.

"We have found evidence of massive shock waves carrying molten rock
and dust that has left a thin layer of glass beads and shattered
mineral grains across the ancient British land surface,'' he added.
Received on Thu 28 Nov 2002 12:33:43 PM PST