[meteorite-list] worlds biggest tektite in history -Not

From: Aubrey Whymark <tinbider_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:42:01 +0000 (GMT)
Message-ID: <580731.61381.qm_at_web28506.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Hi

The biggest Muong Nong-type tektites appear to be in the Laos-NE Thailand border and in Hainan. For sure they are very proximal tektites/impactites. I think the microtektite distribution pattern is a better indicator though as it's going to be statistically more reliable. All the evidence points to the Gulf of Tonkin, between Vietnam and Hainan - probably closer to Vietnam. This is a shallow sea (but might not have been sea at the time of impact, not that it would make a lot of difference). A crater in the sea would explain why a 43km +/- crater has not yet been found. In reality I bet this crater has been found on oil field seismic which should criss-cross the whole of this area. Maybe it hasn't been recognised, maybe the 'structure' has been kept secret because of it's possible economic value or maybe it lies in disputed Vietnamese-Chinese waters. I'm pretty sure it's out there though! I do wonder if any trace of rims would show up on bathymetric maps,
 but there has been a very large sediment input into this area in the last 800,000 years and I would imagine it could easily bury the crater.

Interestingly the largest splashforms are found 2000 km away in the Philippines, not proximally in Indochina as one might first expect. Maybe this is because the Philippinite melt sheet was disrupted higher in the atmosphere meaning that philippinites were not immediately acted upon by significant atmospheric forces. The Indochinites probably formed at lower atmospheric levels that might aid breaking up of the largest of bodies. I'm sure there are a number of factors at play though. Same applies to the Chesapeake impact - the largest splashform tektites are 2000 km away in Texas.

Aubrey



--- On Sun, 13/12/09, Paul H. <oxytropidoceras at cox.net> wrote:

> From: Paul H. <oxytropidoceras at cox.net>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] worlds biggest tektite in history
> To: "meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Date: Sunday, 13 December, 2009, 17:38
> Phil Morgan wrote:
>
> "For any interested in this topic, Aubrey Whymark has a
> nice page on
> large tektites here http://www.tektites.co.uk/largest_tektites.html ."
>
> Has? anyone tried plotting the locations of the
> largest known tektites?
>
> It seems like, their distribution, especially of the Muong
> Nong-type
> tektites, would provide some clues about the type and
> location of
> the impact that created them.
>
> Best Regrads,
>
> Paul H.
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Received on Mon 14 Dec 2009 10:42:01 AM PST