[meteorite-list] Cuban Scientists Study Meteorite Fragments

From: Mike Groetz <mpg444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jan 20 20:06:09 2006
Message-ID: <20060121010022.64462.qmail_at_web32912.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/Scie&Tec/060120315.htm

Cuban Scientists Study Meteorite Fragments (01/20/06)

SANCTI SPIRITUS, Cuba- Cuban experts analyze a site
near the town of Fomento in Sancti Spiritus province,
where they have recently found clues of the impact of
an enormous meteorite with the Earth during the
Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago).

Reinaldo Rojas, head of the Limite KT project in Cuba,
which is in charge of the exploration, told Escambray
Digital daily that the site shows abundant material to
be taken as the main point for the research.

Rojas explained that after digging three meters into
the rocky surface, scientists discovered meteoritic
glass, small quartz grains, and sediments, as well as
a fossil macrofauna and microfauna, all proofs of a
collision.

The scientist estimates that 65 million years ago, the
town of Fomento in central Cuba was located about 500
Km from the meteorite-hit place in the Mexican Yucatan
Peninsula; thereby, what it?s been recently detected
should have been thrust by the meteorite?s powerful
energy waves when it struck Yucatan.

Its crash with the Earth unleashed high temperatures
and pressures, as well as great volumes of gases
identical to those of a colossal atomic explosion
causing one of the largest life extinctions on the
planet, he explained.

Prior to this ongoing study, Cuban specialists had
only records of the fallen meteoroid in rocks of
western Cuban provinces from Pinar del Rio to
Matanzas, and in La Loma del Capiro in Sancta Clara
city.


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Received on Fri 20 Jan 2006 08:00:22 PM PST