[meteorite-list] Crater chains on earth (was "Impacts and other big issues")

From: Piper R.W. Hollier <piper_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:08:23 2004
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20020911093423.021fda40_at_pop.xs4all.nl>

At 09:23 11/09/02 +1000, Chris Sharp wrote:

>[snip]
>The document below ( 14th June 2002) mentions "a chain of at least
>five craters spread across several continents"
>
>It doesn't go into any details but goes on to hypothesise a meteorite
>ricochet that leaves a debris trail that eventually forms into a
>debris ring around the Earth's equator.
>
>Is there anyone that has any idea what Sandia Labs are talking about?

Hello Chris and list,

This is probably a reference to a crater chain described in a paper
published in the 12 March 1998 issue of Nature. An international team of
researchers has discovered an alignment of five large craters, all about
214 million years old:

Manicouagan (Canada), 100 km diameter
Saint Martin (Canada), 40 km diameter
Rochechouart (France), 23 km diameter
Obolon (Ukraine), 15 km diameter
Red Wing (Minnesota, USA), 9 km diameter

More info here:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news12.html

There may also be an impact crater chain of somewhat "smaller" craters in
the US Midwest. In 1996, Rampino and Volk published a paper describing a
linear configuration of eight large circular depressions stretching across
Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. Two of these have been positively
identified as impact craters approximately 300 million years old:

Decaturville, (Missouri, USA), 6 km diameter
Crooked Creek (Missouri, USA), 7 km diameter

Is there someone on the list who knows whether field studies have been done
since 1996 to determine whether any of the other six craters in this chain
are likely to be impact craters?

There is a map of this crater chain here:

http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/staff/bottke/crater_chain/chain.html

...as well as other information about crater chains on the earth and moon.

Best wishes to all,

Piper
Received on Wed 11 Sep 2002 04:42:16 AM PDT