[meteorite-list] Chixulub impactor

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:22:57 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <545763.2052.qm_at_web36906.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Sterling, Michael, list

3:30 in the morning and just in from a 13 hour drive - a perfect time for archair analysis (end of warning).

We know that what hit was CC, and Baptista fragments would have been too slow. My guess: take the velocity of Shoemaker Leny 9, plug that into the equation to get total mass. Then figure dissipation.

Osmium? remember that it is likely that neutrons and protons are being freed in hypervelocity impacts.

The wave from this impact went out some distance, as did the fracturing of the crust (in which oil pooled).

E.P. Grondine
"Man and Impact in the Americas"
"I wipe my bottom with the pages of your book" - Andi
"Just psuedo scientific trash that uses Hibbens' observations, which have been discredited." -
"But how were carbon spherules and iron spherules produced at the same time" -
"It's all myths" -

Hi, Michael, List,

    Estimates of Chicxulub crater size range from
170-180 kilometers (or about 115 miles) up to 300
kilometers ( ~180 miles).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

    The placement of the unique wells of Yucatan,
the cenotes, delimit a crater rim with a diameter of
170-195 km.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v376/n6539/abs/376415a0.html

    Chicxulub is a multi-ring basin (the big ones are).
The question is whether the 170-180 km ring is the
outermost ring. Some see it; some don't. Here's all
the geological (like gravimetric) data:
http://miac.uqac.ca/MIAC/chicxulub.htm

    The 300 km rim, if present, is high degraded. The
chief reason for believing in it is the depressed terrain
outside the 170-195 km rim, because depressed terrain
occurs between rims but not outside the outermost rim
(usually).

    So, you can see that it's highly doubtful that the
crater was 500 miles or 800 km in diameter. You shouldn't
believe everything you see on TV (or video).

    However, it was plenty big enough. Just ask your
local dinosaurs... Whoops!


Sterling K. Webb


      
Received on Tue 24 Jun 2008 04:22:57 AM PDT