[meteorite-list] NPA 06-29-1951 Meen to Explore Pingualuit Crater

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jan 18 11:15:14 2005
Message-ID: <BAY4-F16E67416D25AC37D75D8C5B38F0_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: Sheboygan Press
City: Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Date: Friday, June 29, 1951
Page: 3

Will Explore Barren Crater Site In Far Northern Canada

     Washington, D.C. - The National Geographic society and Toronto's Royal
Ontario museum today announced a joint expedition to far northern Canada to
explore the recently discovered Chubb crater - a giant depression in the
earth that closely resembles craters on the moon.
     Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the society, disclosed that Dr.
Victor Ben Meen, 40, noted Canadian geologist and director of the museum,
will lead the expedition.
     The party will leave by air in mid-July for the barren crater in
northern Quebec between Hudson bay and Ungava bay. The scientists expect to
land on a nearby ice-free lake and make camp as near the boulder-strewn
crater as is possible. Then for the next month, using the most modern
scientific instruments including mine detectors, they will search for the
search of Chubb crater's origin.
     Some of the highly specialized equipment required by the expedition was
secured through the cooperation of government agencies with Dr. Lyman J.
Briggs retired director of the U.S. Bureau of Standards and chairman of the
National Geographic society's committee on research.

Dwarfed A-Bomb Explosion

     Dr. Meen believes the Chubb crater was made by a plunging meteorite
which exploded between 3,000 and 15,000 years ago. If it was a meteorite,
Dr. Meen said, the explosion easily dwarfed the noise and destructive power
of the present-day atom bomb.
     It blasted a round hole over two miles wide and hundreds of feet deep.
It raised a rim around the hole averaging 400 feet high. The shock smashed
far into bedrock and granite over the surrounding countryside as ridges
splash marks - much as a blot of ink leaves splatter marks.
     Dr. Meen had a preliminary look at the crater last year when he
surveyed the area in the company of Frederick W. Chubb, a prospector for
gold and diamonds who first spotted the deeply gouged scar, and for whom it
is named.
     Its appearance suggested a tilted cup with one side considerably higher
than the other.
     "We started up the 25-degree slope of the rim." Dr Meen recalled. "It
seemed to be a jumbled heap of fragments of granite. At length, after a
climb of nearly 300 feet, we set foot on the top and looked down into the
crater. We were so awed by what we saw that I don't believe we spoke or even
shook hands.
     "Hundred of fed beneath us lay a perfectly circular lake, cupped in a
crater whose walls rose steeply in a slope of 45 degrees. No sound broke
from the stillness except the continuous grinding of ice on the water far
below and the wind blowing across the crater rim.
     "From where we stood," said Dr. Meen, "it was more than 11,000 feet to
the opposite side of the rim
     "We were looked down into what may well be the greatest crater of its
kind anywhere in the world."

(end)
Received on Tue 18 Jan 2005 11:14:54 AM PST