[meteorite-list] Ohio and Indiana gold, silver, and diamonds

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 16:37:05 -0500
Message-ID: <08a701c8e142$c4b4bf10$2346e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, EP, List,

EP wrote:
> I think the edge of the glacial maximum is
> well known to be north, so they are left looking
> for a transport mechanism.

    I will just quote from my Post of 07-03-08:
The drainage basin of the Ohio river shows plentiful
evidence of this. There are glacial deposits in Kentucky,
which is further south than Ohio (in case they haven't
looked south across the river from Cincinnati lately).
http://books.google.com/books?id=8eFSK4o--M0C&pg=PA376&lpg=PA376&dq=southernmost+glacial+erratic+US&source=web&ots=2NcIEXv_S_&sig=IGLmBdjw-oyZJUteovXiSv-FagA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
(* The Kentucky glacial deposits are from an earlier
glaciation, not the Laurentide, but who knows when the
diamonds were deposited?)

    In ruling out glacial transport of diamonds, it is necessary
to rule out ALL glacial transport from Canada at any Pleistocene
time unless you have an in situ datable deposit ready to read.
The last glaciation was just that: the LAST one. There have
been four major ones over the last two million years.

    It's all recent history.

    Speaking of recent history, let's talk about meltwater (they
do). "Meltwater" means the Great Lakes. Before the glaciation,
they were a nice big Rift Valley, like in Africa. Here's a dated
graphic of the Great Lakes growth and the glaciers shrinkage
history in relation to size of lakes and position of the Ice Cap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Glacial_lakes.jpg
and another with the retreat in detail (third map down page):
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/EarthSC202Notes/GLACgeog.HTM

    You'll notice the ice didn't just "vanish." It retreated. It
took a long time doing it. The retreat is easily datable at
thousands of sites along the retreat. You'll note there's no
great, sudden flood, Noah, baby!

    There's another problem with this imaginary reconstruction
of the end of the Ice Age. I pointed out in a previous Post that
the Amazonian Rain Forest is NOT an ancient, primeval
feature but a Post-Glacial Development. The modern Earth
has many mighty continent-spanning features we think of as
ancient and primeval but that are only more Glacial or Post-Glacial
Developments, like the Sahara Desert and -- most important
here -- the Mississippi River and the ENTIRE drainage system
of the Americn Midwest.

    Before the Ice Age, ALL the rivers in the interior of the US,
from the Rockies to the Apalachians and south to Kentucky
and Missouri drained to the NORTH! They were short,
meandering and sluggish because the downslope gradient
was not great, but eventually most of them got to the
Arctic Ocean. Tracing the ancient water courses headed
north has been going on for a century; it's a great way to
train grad students...

    There were meltwater channels coming out from under
the glaciers and running south for a while, however the Ohio
glacer retreated early (see the graphics in the URL's above).
But from the north edge of Ohio to the Ohio River, it's all
UPHILL.

    My experience? It's hard to persuade rivers to run uphill.


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "E.P. Grondine" <epgrondine at yahoo.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ohio and Indiana gold, silver, and diamonds


Hello everyone -

I did not cover "Hopewell" silver and gold trade in my book, as the items
were rare and there are multiple small deposits throughout eastern North
America to account for them.

I have been driving through this area (Greenville to Cincinatti) on my way
to and from powwow, and I don't know if what I have learned will be of any
value, but here goes.

What this team seems to have found is gold, sliver, and diamond deposits
sourced from Canada, and dated ca 10,900 BCE. I think the edge of the
glacial maximum is well known to be north, so they are left looking for a
transport mechanism.

Obviously they know nothing of the mechanics of hyper velocity impact - it
is frustrating that Dr. Peiser and has taken the Cambridge Conference and
his abilities in other directions, and the Holocene Impact Working Group
does not seem to have found these folks yet.

There are two main streams running north to south through the region. One is
7 mile Creek, the other the Whitewater River. There was extensive later
occupation along the Whitewater, with major complexes near Richmond, Indiana
from the archaic on. Sterling, that appears to be your melt channels. The
timing the team seems to have, but the cause?...

Among the Europeans at the time of conquest there were extensive rumors of
Shawnee silver, source unknown. These rumors have fascinated local people
for a long time. In the "Treaty" of Vinceennes, Benjamin Henry Harrison even
reserved a piece of land on the Vermillion River off of the Wabash which he
thought was the silver source.

I had thought that the silver came from DeSoto's expedition, as they placed
small silver crosses on the foreheads of "friendly" Natives to distinguish
them from enemy peoples in battle. Perhaps these deposits may explain De
Soto's routes and activities, but who knows? Much later, French traders
brought in small crosses and other trinkets.

In closing, in as much as the exploration of recent impact sites is a new
field of science, could I ask you to keep your comments civil?

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas











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Received on Tue 08 Jul 2008 05:37:05 PM PDT