[meteorite-list] Another new old crater

From: Jerry <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:03:02 -0400
Message-ID: <B648762EAAB04064BB1BD74A3FBF9A7D_at_Notebook>

Is no one safe???????????
Forget the searching will you. I'm getting very uncomfortable.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse at charter.net>
To: "Meteorite-list Meteoritecentral" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:20 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Another new old crater


> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7314329.stm
>
> 'Biggest UK space impact found'
> By Paul Rincon
> Science reporter, BBC News
>
> Evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles has been
> found
> by a team of scientists.
> Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen think a large
> object
> hit north-west Scotland about 1.2 billion years ago.
>
> The space rock struck the ground near the present-day town of Ullapool,
> they
> report in Geology journal.
>
> The scientists found what they believe to be debris which was flung out
> when the
> impact crater was formed.
>
> "If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago, they
> would
> have seen quite a show," said co-author Ken Amor, from the University of
> Oxford.
>
> "The massive impact would have melted rocks and thrown up an enormous
> cloud of
> vapour that scattered material over a large part of the region around
> Ullapool.
> The crater was rapidly buried by sandstone which helped to preserve the
> evidence."
>
> The crater is suspected to lie under the Minch, the waterway that
> separates
> Lewis in the Outer Hebrides from the north-west Highlands of Scotland.
>
> Unusual rock formations in the area were previously thought to have been
> formed
> by volcanic activity.
>
> 'Spectacular' strike
>
> But Ken Amor and his colleagues found "ejecta blanket" evidence buried in
> rocks
> from the area. This represents debris thrown out when the huge object
> slammed
> into the ground.
>
> Ejected material from the meteorite strike is scattered over an area about
> 50km
> across.
>
> In the rocks, the researchers found elevated levels of the element
> iridium,
> which is characteristic of extra-terrestrial material. They also found
> microscopic parallel fractures that also imply a meteorite strike.
>
> Co-author John Parnell, a geologist at the University of Aberdeen, said:
> "Building up the evidence has been painstaking, but has resulted in proof
> of the
> largest meteorite strike known in the British Isles."
>
> Mr Amor said this was the "most spectacular evidence for a meteorite
> impact
> within the British Isles found to date".
>
> He added: "What we have discovered about this meteorite strike could help
> us to
> understand the ancient impacts that shaped the surface of other planets,
> such as
> Mars."
>
> The proposed volcanic origin for the rock formations had previously been a
> puzzle, as there are no volcanic vents or other volcanic sediments nearby.
>
> The UK's only other known space impact location is Silverpit in the North
> Sea.
> Scientists have found evidence on the sea floor for a cataclysmic asteroid
> or
> comet strike that occurred some 60-65 million years ago. The impact
> structure is
> about 130km (80 miles) east of the Yorkshire coast.
>
> Some researchers, though, have questioned its space origins.
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Received on Wed 26 Mar 2008 03:03:02 PM PDT