[meteorite-list] exact Carolina Bay crater locations, RB Firestone, A West, et al, two YD reviews, 2008 June, 2009 Nov, also 3 upcoming abstracts: Rich Murray 2009.11.14

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:29:51 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <692777.48595.qm_at_web36901.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Rich -

Perhaps they should be looking for multiple Kitscoty type impact structures. I.l. - 3 to 4 miles of ice blown off, land rises in perfectly circular pattern.

Another possibility for the KREEP is actually primary impact with the Moon and secondary impacts from ejecta. When I get my computer up I'll send you a jpg of the cast of the Trempealeau Petroglyph.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas

--- On Sun, 11/15/09, Rich Murray <rmforall at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Rich Murray <rmforall at comcast.net>
> Subject: exact Carolina Bay crater locations, RB Firestone, A West, et al, two YD reviews, 2008 June, 2009 Nov, also 3 upcoming abstracts: Rich Murray 2009.11.14
> To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Cc: "Rich Murray" <rmforall at comcast.net>, RichMurray.rmforall at gmail.com
> Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 12:39 AM
> exact Carolina Bay crater locations,
> RB Firestone, A West, et al, two YD
> reviews, 2008 June, 2009 Nov, also 3 upcoming abstracts:
> Rich Murray
> 2009.11.14
> http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.htm
> Saturday, November 14, 2009
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/astrodeep/message/31
> ___________________________________________________
>
>
> http://ie.lbl.gov/mammoth/mammoth.html
> Firestone paper links
>
> http://ie.lbl.gov/mammoth/TunguskaConferenceA4_Firestone.pdf
> 37 pages
> Firestone, R.B.; West, A.; Revay Zs.; Hagstrum J.T.; Belgya
> T.;
> Que Hee S.S.; and Smith, A.R. (2008)
> Analysis of the Younger Dryas Impact Layer,
> 100 years since Tunguska phenomenon: past, present, and
> future,
> June 26-28, Moscow, in press. 54 references
>
> R.B. Firestone 1,
> A. West 2,
> Zs. Revay 3,
> J. T. Hagstrum 4,
> T. Belgya 3,
> S.S. Que Hee 5,
> and A.R. Smith 1
> 1 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Ca
> 94720,
> [ #43 Henderson, G.M.; Hall, B.L.; Smith, A.; &
> Robinson, L.F.
> (2006) Chem. Geol. 226, 298-308 ]
> 2 GeoScience Consulting, Box 1636, Dewey, Arizona 86327,
> 3 Institute for Isotope and Surface Chemistry,
> P.O. Box 77, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary,
> 4 U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road MS 937,
> Menlo Park, CA 94025,
> 5 University of California, Los Angeles, ICP-MS Facility,
> Los Angeles, CA 90095
>
> Abstract
>
> We have uncovered a thin layer of magnetic grains and
> microspherules, carbon spherules, and glass-like carbon at
> nine sites across North America, a site in Belgium, and
> throughout the rims of 16 Carolina Bays.
> It is consistent with the ejecta layer from an impact event
> and
> has been dated to 12.9 ka BP coinciding with the onset of
> Younger Dryas (YD) cooling and widespread megafaunal
> extinctions in North America.
> At many locations the impact layer is directly below a
> black mat
> marking the sudden disappearance of the megafauna and
> Clovis
> people.
> The distribution pattern of the Younger Dryas boundary
> (YDB)
> ejecta layer is consistent with an impact near the Great
> Lakes
> that deposited terrestrial-like ejecta near the impact site
> and
> unusual, titanium-rich projectile-like ejecta further
> away.
> High water content associated with the ejecta, up to 28
> at.%
> hydrogen (H), suggests the impact occurred over the
> Laurentide
> Ice Sheet.
> YDB microspherules and magnetic grains are highly enriched
> in
> TiO2.
> Magnetic grains from several sites are enriched in iridium
> (Ir), up
> to 117 ppb.
> The TiO2/FeO, K/Th, TiO2/Zr, Al2O3/FeO+MgO, CaO/Al2O3,
> REE/chondrite, FeO/MnO ratios and SiO2, Na2O, K2O, Cr2O3,
> Ni, Co, U, Th and other trace element abundances are
> inconsistent
> with all terrestrial and extraterrestrial (ET) sources
> except for
> KREEP, a lunar igneous rock rich in potassium (K),
> rare-earth
> elements (REE), phosphorus (P), and other incompatible
> elements
> including U and Th.
> Normal Fe, Ti, and 238U/235U isotopic abundances were
> found
> in the magnetic grains, but 234U was enriched over
> equilibrium
> values by 50% in Murray Springs and by 130% in Belgium.
> 40K abundance is enriched by up to 100% in YDB sediments
> and
> Clovis chert artifacts.
> Highly vesicular carbon spherules containing nanodiamonds,
> glass-like carbon, charcoal and soot found in large
> quantities in
> the YDB layer are consistent with an impact followed by
> intense
> burning.
> Four holes in the Great Lakes, some deeper than Death
> Valley,
> are proposed as possible craters produced by the airburst
> breakup of a loosely aggregated projectile.
>
> from Table 2:
>
> CLOVIS SITES:
> Blackwater Draw, NM----- 34.27564N 103.32633W
> Chobot, AB, CAN--------- 52.99521N 114.71773W
> Gainey, MI----------------- 42.93978N,, 83.72111W
> Murray Springs, AZ --------31.57103N 110.17814W
> Wally's Beach, AB--------- 49.34183N 113.15440W
> Topper, SC -- T-1--------- 33.00554N,, 81.49001W
> Topper, SC -- T-2--------- 33.00545N,, 81.49056W
>
> CLOVIS-AGE SITES:
> Daisy Cave, CA----------- 34.04207N 120.32009W
> Lake Hind, MB, CAN----- 49.43970N 100.69783W
> Lommel, BELGIUM------- 51.23580N,,,,, 5.26403E
> Morley drumlin, AB-------- 51.14853N, 114.93546W
>
> CAROLINA BAYS: (with paleosol beneath)
> Blackville, SC -- T13------- 33.36120N 81.30440W
> Myrtle Beach, SC -- M31-- 33.83776N 78.69565W
> Lk Mattamuskeet -- LM---- 35.51865N 76.267917W
> Howard Bay, NC -- HB---- 34.81417N 78.84753W
> [ http://ie.lbl.gov/mammoth/PP43A_10.pdf ]
> poster 1.07 MB
>
> CAROLINA BAYS: (no paleosol reached)
> Myrtle Beach, SC -- M33-- 33.81883N 78.74181W
> Myrtle Beach, SC -- M24-- 33.83118N 78.72379W
> Myrtle Beach, SC -- M32-- 33.84034N 78.70906W
> Salters Lake, NC -- B14--- 34.70992N 78.62043W
> Lumberton, NC -- L33----- 34.75566N 79.10870W
> Lumberton, NC -- L28----- 34.77766N 79.05008W
> Lumberton, NC -- L31----- 34.78117N 79.04774W
> Lumberton, NC -- L32----- 34.79324N 79.01871W
> Moore Cty, NC -- MC1--- 35.30104N 78. 84753W
> Sewell, NC -- FS3--------- 34.95800N 78.70280W
> Lake Phelps -- LP---------- 35.78412N 76.434383W
>
> I looked all these up with Google Earth and Maps.
> In many cases, many craters overlap complexly, so it
> is not clear which is the one studied.
> It is always easy to find many more in each cluster.
>
>
> http://journalofcosmology.com/Extinction105.html?
> 20 pages
> Firestone, R. B., 2009,
> The Case for the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact
> Event:
> Mammoth, Megafauna, and Clovis Extinction, 12,900 Years
> Ago.
> Journal of Cosmology. vol. 2, pp. 256-285. 67 references
>
> Abstract
>
> The onset of >1000 years of Younger Dryas cooling,
> broad-scale
> extinctions, and the disappearance of the Clovis culture in
> North
> America simultaneously occurred 12,900 years ago followed
> immediately by the appearance of a carbon-rich black layer
> at
> many locations.
> In situ bones of extinct megafauna and Clovis tools occur
> only
> beneath this black layer and not within or above it.
> At the base of the black mat at 9 Clovis-age sites in
> North
> America and a site in Belgium numerous extraterrestrial
> impact
> markers were found including magnetic grains highly
> enriched in
> iridium, magnetic microspherules, vesicular carbon
> spherules
> enriched in cubic, hexagonal, and n-type nanodiamonds,
> glass-like carbon containing Fullerenes and nanodiamonds,
> charcoal, soot, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
> The same impact markers were found mixed throughout the
> sediments of 15 Carolina Bays, elliptical depressions along
> the
> Atlantic coast, whose parallel major axes point towards
> either
> the Great Lakes or Hudson Bay. The magnetic grains and
> spherules have an unusual Fe/Ti composition similar to
> lunar
> Procellarum KREEP Terrane and the organic constituents are
> enriched in 14C leading to radiocarbon dates often well
> into
> the future.
> These characteristics are inconsistent with known
> meteorites
> and suggest that the impact was by a previous unobserved,
> possibly extrasolar body.
> The concentration of impact markers peaks near the Great
> Lakes
> and their unusually high water content suggests that a 4.6
> km-wide
> comet fragmented and exploded over the Laurentide Ice
> Sheet
> creating numerous craters that now persist at the bottom of
> the
> Great Lakes.
> The coincidence of this impact, the onset of Younger Dryas
> cooling, extinction of the megafauna, and the appearance of
> a
> black mat strongly suggests that all these events are
> directly
> related.
> These results have unleashed an avalanche of controversy
> which I will address in this paper.
>
> Keywords: Younger Dryas, Extinctions, Extraterrestrial
> Impacts,
> Black Mat, Clovis, Mammoth, Megafauna
>
> "West also investigated sediment from 15 Carolina Bays,
> elliptical depressions found along the Atlantic coast from
> New England to Florida (Eyton and Parkhurst, 1975),
> whose parallel major axes point towards either the
> Great Lakes or Hudson Bay as seen in Fig. 3.
> Similar bays have tentatively been identified in Texas,
> New Mexico, Kansas, and Nebraska (Kuzilla, 1988)
> although they are far less common in this region.
> Their major axes also point towards the Great Lakes.
> The formation of the Carolina Bays was originally ascribed
> to meteor impacts (Melton and Schriever, 1933) but when
> no meteorites were found they were variously ascribed
> to marine, eolian, or other terrestrial processes.
>
> West found abundant microspherules, carbon spherules,
> glass-like carbon, charcoal, Fullerenes, and soot
> throughout
> the Carolina Bays but not beneath them as shown in Fig. 4.
> Outside of the Bays these markers were only found only
> in the YDB layer as in other Clovis-age sites."
>
> "Figure 3. The Carolina Bays are >>500,000
> elliptical,
> shallow lakes, wetlands, and depressions, up to >>10
> km long,
> with parallel major axes (see inset) pointing toward the
> Great Lakes or Hudson Bay.
> Similar features found in fewer numbers in the plains
> states
> also point towards the Great Lakes.
> These bays were not apparent topographical features
> until the advent of aerial photography."
>
> This figure shows nice color LIDAR typographic images
> of 8 craters, 0.5 to 4 km wide.
> I used Ctr + in Windows Vista to expand the NA map,
> counting
> 18 elliiptical craters in the Great Plains:
> Texas 4
> New Mexico 3
> Colorado 2
> Kansas 4
> Nebraska 5.
>
> It's not easy to locate the LIDAR craters on the photo
> images
> of Google Maps and Earth, but I've had a lot of practice
> with
> these states and all over Earth this year, including brief
> visits to
> many craters in New Mexico and Kauai.
> I managed to find Salt Lake, NM, and Coyote Lake, TX.
> The features are often complex enough to make assigning a
> size fairly arbitrary.
>
> Nice maps and typo maps and tourist info are available free
> on:
> www.trails.com
> www.goingoutside.com
>
> Salt Lake, New Mexico 34.079932 -103.089600,
> 1.177 km lowest crater elevation, NEE axis, EES rim el
> 1.215,
> N edge el 1.183, ~10x3.7, E from center 7 km to Texas and
> 18 km to Coyote Lake (another LIDAR image), much white
> deposits,? N of Rd 235ew,? just S of Rd 88 S
> Roosevelt Road 10,
> 24 km E of 206ns, 26 km EES of Portales, striking "comb"
> of
> many parallel ditches running into lake from E side
>
> Little Salt Lake is 7 km W of center,? el 1.183, 3.6
> wide, E comb,
> very similar and obviously connected
>
> Coyote Lake, Texas 34.102105 -102.872902 1.162 site N
> 1.200
> 15 km SW of Muleshoe, size 5.7x4.3, E comb, W of Rd 214 ns
>
> Baileyboro Lake 34.0045 -102.8206 1.155 site SW 1.186
> no comb, size 2
>
> Upper White Lake 33.9426 -102.7678 1.129 site W 1.171
> S,E comb, size 1.8,? 2 km W of Rd 214ns
>
> just 1 km NE is a double crater, 1.129 site W 1.169,
> S,E comb, 1.6x1.3, just W of Rd 214ns
>
> then just N is Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, same
> size,
> with a .24 wide flat round dark crater 1.667 site W 1.170
>
> just E across Rt 214ns is Upper Pauls Lake, complex 2 km
> size,
> 1.129 site W 1.147
>
> 33.860831 -101.449100 1.038 site W 1.125
> NNE 15x8, 29 km SSE of craters by Rd 214ns,
> 10 km W of Rd 385ns, 15 km SW of Littlefield on Rd 84nwse,
> comb on whole E side
>
> Returning to New Mexico, Lane Salt Lake, similar to Salt
> Lake
> 33.465718 -103.608318 1.265 site 1.300 size 10x4 NE
> 90 km SW of Salt Lake, E comb
>
> 34.038716 -103.350290, el 1.266, site about 1.269, .16
> wide,
> W of 206ns, just S of S Roosevelt Rd 15, dark
>
> 34.026073 -103.399379 1.278 site 1.283 size .76,
> extends to SW
>
> 34.026338 -103.437950 1.279 site 1.287,
> cut by Rd 235ew size 1.5
>
> WSNM 32.755610 -106.413363 1.186 site S 1.210 68x33 km
> White Sands National Monument, gypsum sand
>
>
> Howard Bay, NC -- HB---- 34.81417 -78.84753
> [ Wet center marked in blue on Google Maps Terrain,
> named Pages Lake .7x.2, with Mines Creek NW to SE
> at both ends, but built over on Google Earth,
> 34.815274 -783014 .030 is lowest point,
> just SW of Rd 87,? is 13.7 km W of Marshy Bay,
> which is NW of Bladen Lakes State Forest.
> site W .044 N .044 E creek .010? S .043 all at 1.3
> radius,
> Rd 87 cuts NW across NE half, farms completely hide
> crater,
> steep bare brown red rise to NWSE ridge from .030 to .044
> from .090 to 1.17 radius must be NE rim.
> Many local farm roads provide convenient access
> across crater interior. ]
>
> [ http://ie.lbl.gov/mammoth/PP43A_10.pdf ]
> poster 1.07 MB
>
> R. Kobres 1,
> G. A. Howard 2 ( george at restorationsystems.com
> ),
> A.West? 3 ,
> R. B. Firestone 4,
> J. P. Kennett 5,
> D. Kimbel 2,
> W. Newell 2
> 1 U. of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602,
> 2 Restoration Systems, L.L.C., Raleigh, NC 27604,
> 3 GeoScience Consulting, Dewey, Arizona 86327,
> 4 Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Berkeley, CA 94720,
> 5 Dept. of Earth Sciences, U. of California, Santa Barbara,
> CA 93106.
>
> B23A-0948
> Surface Vertical Exaggeration = 7x
> Scale: 250 meters
> Bay is 2.6 km long
>
> The Carolina Bays are a group of up to 500,000 lakes and
> wetlands stretching from Florida to New Jersey
> along the Atlantic Ocean.
> They are up to11 km in length and about 15 meters in
> depth.
> The elliptical shapes, overlapping rims (Fig.1, left), and
> common
> orientation towards the Great Lakes region have generated
> many
> hypotheses about how the Bays formed.
> Extraterrestrial Impact.
> This hypothesis was developed by Melton and Schriever
> (1933)
> and expanded by Prouty, (1934) and Eyton and
> Parkhurst(1970),
> who proposed that a meteorite or comet exploded above the
> Great Lakes, producing no primary crater.
> The secondary fragments and/orshock wave from that blast
> formed rough, shallow craters on the Atlantic Coast, and,
> over time, wind and water altered those craters to form
> the
> Carolina Bays.
> The Impact Hypothesis accounts fo rthe orientation of
> Bays,
> overlapping raised rims, and the fact? that they do
> not appear
> to be forming today.
> However, there are problems:
> (a) reported Bay ages vary by tens of thousands of years;
> and
> (b) no one has found impact material in the Bays, such as
> shocked quartz or other ET markers.
> Wind-and-Water.
> This hypothesis was offered in various versions
> first by Raisz (1934) and others, whosuggested that wind
> created deflation basins or parabolic dunes, which later
> filled to become lakes that evolved into Carolina Bays.
> Johnson (1942) proposed that springs or groundwater
> dissolution of soluble minerals caused subsidence, which
> formed
> water-filled depressions that became the Bays.
> Kaczorowski (1976) formulated what has become one of the
> prevailing views, suggesting that strong ice-age winds
> blew
> across irregular lakes, generating powerful eddy-currents.
> Those currents gradually reshaped the lakes into oriented,
> elliptical Carolina Bays, whose long axes were
> perpendicular
> to the prevailing wind direction.
> The rims were built from wind-transported sand that
> accumulated from the dry lake beds during droughts.
> While this overall hypothesis clarifies many Bay features,
> it has several key weaknesses.
> The theory can not explain:
> (a)how wind and water could create up to four layers of
> stacked Bays with overlapping Bay rims, as seen in Fig.1;
> and
> (b) why modern severe wind and water action, such as
> occurs
> during hurricanes, does not produce or reshape Bays
> on the Coastal Plain today.
> Objective:
> Because of the above questions, the Bay controversy has
> remained unresolved for more than 80 years.
> In this investigation, we tested these various hypotheses
> by
> examining Howard Bay, which is located about 2km north of
> the town of Duartin, Bladen County, North Carolina.
> RESULTS
> Nine suites of samples were extracted along the 2.6-km long
> axis
> of Howard Bay using a combination of trenching and coring
> with
> an AMS Soil Core Sampler.
> Maximum depths varied from about 2 to10 meters.
> ET Markers.
> Analysis of the samples reveals an assemblage of abundant
> carbon spherules (Fig.2), magneticgrains, microspherules,
> glass-like carbon, and iridium, typical of the12.9-ka YDB
> impact layer found at many other non-bay sites
> across North America.
> The impact layer conforms to the bottom of the basin
> (dark blue on the core symbols), suggesting that the
> markers
> began to be deposited immediately or soon after the Bay
> formed.
> Fig.3 shows the results from Core #11 near the center of
> Howard Bay, where carbon spherules are found from
> nearly the surface down to about 7.5 meters deep.
> Glass-like carbon abundances (not shown) followed
> a similar pattern.
> Iridium (15 ppb) was found at the lowest level of the
> basin.
> Silt and Clay.
> Trenching shows that theBay is filled with >6m of
> cross-bedded
> eolian sand (Fig.4) with no evidence of lacustrine
> sedimentation.
> As a further test, sediment from Core #11 was analyzed
> with
> Standard ASTM sieves, and the results are shown in Fig.3.
> The top1 meter averaged about 14% silt and clay, and from
> about 1 to 9 meters, there is 0.3% to 6% silt and clay,
> values consistent with eolian deposition.
> There is typically less than a few percent of any
> particles
> larger than medium sand.
> DISCUSSION
> Analysis reveals that, unlike typical, peat-rich Carolina
> Bays,
> Howard Bay essentially lacks peat, diatoms, pollen, and
> other
> organic materials, and it also lacks substantial silt and
> clay.
> That suggests this Bay never held water for a sustained
> length of time.
> Furthermore, the presence of extensive eolian sand calls
> into question prevailing hypotheses
> (a) that all Bays were lakes and ponds in the past and
> that
> their shapes were formed by wave action, and
> (b) that ground water movement led to subsidence that
> formed the Bay.
> In addition, the presence of impact markers, including
> high
> concentrations of iridium in a layer just above the basal
> sediments of this Bay, supports the impact hypothesis
> for Bay formation.
> The age of Howard Bay appears consistent with and
> not older than the YD impact event;
> however, our research did not address the reported
> anomalous
> ages of other Bays, a question which remains unresolved.
> REFERENCES
> 1. Melton, F.A. & Scriever, W. (1933) J. Geol. 41,
> 52-56.
> 2. Prouty, W.F. (1952) Bulletin of the GSA, Vol. 63,
> 167-224..
> 3. Eyton, J.R. & J.I. Parkhurst (1975)
> Dept. of Geography Paper No. 9, U. of Illinois.
> 4. Raisz, (1934) J. Geol., Vol. 42:839-848
> 5. Johnson, D.W. (1942) The Origin of the Carolina Bays.
> Columbia University Press, New York.
> 6. Kaczorowski, R.T. (1976) The Carolina Bays:
> a comparison with modern oriented lakes,
> PhD thesis, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
> Base image courtesy of James M. Salmons,
> President, GeoDataCorp.,
> 104 E Horton St., Zebulon, NC 27597,
> 919-269-5744 www.GeoDataMapping.com ]
>
> [ Fig. 1 is a LIDAR elevation image of Marshy Bay,
> Google Maps and Earth give fine natural color view,
> resolution .001 km, size 3.3x1.8 km, el .033 km,
> 4 km E of Cedar Creek Road ns,? Rd 53ns,
> 30 km E of Hwy 95ns, 40 km SE of Fayetteville,
> NW of or part of? Bladen Lakes State Forest,
> 90 km NW of the coast at Wilmington ]
> with Little Singletary Lake [ North Carolina 28399 ]
> and Horseshoe Lake
> to the lower L and lower R,? all oriented NW. ]
>
>
> One side in the debate has conceded a major point to their
> critics,
> while presenting more evidence for many other major
> points.
>
> AGU Fall Meeting 2009
> ID# PP31D-1389
> Location: Poster Hall (Moscone South)
> Time of Presentation: Dec 16 8:00 AM - 12:20 PM
>
> The platinum group metals in Younger Dryas Horizons
> are terrestrial
> Y. Wu 1; E. Wikes 1; J. Kennett 2; A. West 3; M. Sharma 1
> 1. Dept of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
> 2. Department of Earth Sciences,
> University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
> 3. GeoScience Consulting, Dewey, AZ, USA.
>
> The Younger Dryas (YD) event, which began 12,900 years
> ago,
> was a period of abrupt and rapid cooling in the
> Northern Hemisphere whose primary cause remains unclear.
> The prevalent postulated mechanism is a temporary shutdown
> of the thermohaline circulation following the breakup of an
> ice
> dam in North America.
> Firestone et al. (2007) proposed that the cooling was
> triggered
> by multiple cometary airbursts and/or impacts that
> engendered
> enormous environmental changes and disrupted the
> thermohaline
> circulation.
> The evidence in support for this hypothesis is a black
> layer in
> North America and in Europe marking the YD boundary
> containing charcoal, soot, carbon spherules and glass-like
> carbon
> suggesting extensive and intense forest fires.
> This layer is also enriched in magnetic grains high in
> iridium,
> magnetic microspherules, fullerenes containing
> extraterrestrial
> He-3, and nanodiamonds.
> Whereas the nanodiamonds could be produced in an impact or
> arrive with the impactor, the cometary burst/impact
> hypothesis
> remains highly controversial as the YD horizon lacks
> important
> impact markers such as craters, breccias, tektites and
> shocked minerals.
> Firestone et al. (2007) contend that bulk of Ir found at
> the YD
> boundary is associated with magnetic grains.
> The key issue is whether this Ir is meteorite derived.
> We used Ir and Os concentrations and Os isotopes to
> investigate the provenance of the platinum group metals in
> the
> YD horizon.
> The bulk sediment samples from a number of North American
> YD sites (Blackwater Draw, Murray Springs, Gainey,
> Sheriden Cave, and Myrtle Beach) and a site in Europe
> (Lommel)
> do not show any traces of meteorite derived Os and Ir.
> The [Os] = 2 to 45 pg/g in these sediments and the
> 187Os/188Os
> ratios are similar to the upper continental crustal values
> (~1.3),
> much higher than those in meteorites (0.13).
> Higher [Os] is observed in Blackwater Draw (= 194 pg/g).
> However, the Os/Ir ratio in Blackwater Draw is 5
> (not 1 as expected for a meteorite) and
> 187Os/188Os ratio = 1.35, which remains constant above and
> below the YD horizon.
> Kennett et al. (2009) report 200 ppb of nanodiamonds and
> about 4 ppb of Ir in bulk sediments from Murray Springs.
> Since chondritic meteorites contain approximately 400 ppm
> of presolar nanodiamonds and about 500 ppb of osmium,
> simple mixing requires that the YD horizon at Murray
> Springs
> should contain about 250 pg/g of Os.
> However, the observed Os concentration of YD horizon at
> Murray Springs is only 45 pg/g and the 187Os/188Os ratio is
> 1.66.
> These observations suggest that if there was an impact
> that
> produced the nanodiamonds and dispersed them,
> it did not provide Os (and Ir) to the Murray Springs and
> other
> North American sites.
> We have so far separated and analyzed magnetic grains from
> Gainey and Lommel and find their [Os] and 187Os/188Os
> ratios consistent with a terrestrial origin.
> The [Os] of microspherules analyzed so far are too low to
> be
> derived from meteorites.
> Our analyses therefore do not support an extraterrestrial
> origin of
> the platinum metals in YD horizons from North America and
> Europe.
> Contact Information: Yingzhe Wu, Hanover, New Hampshire,
> USA 03755
>
>
> AGU Fall Meeting 2009
> ID# PP31D-1392
> Location: Poster Hall (Moscone South)
> Time of Presentation: Dec 16 8:00 AM - 12:20 PM
>
> Nanodiamonds and Carbon Spherules from Tunguska, the K/T
> Boundary, and the Younger Dryas Boundary Layer
> J. H. Wittke 1; T. E. Bunch 1; A. West 2; J. Kennett 3;
> D. J. Kennett 4; G. A. Howard 5
> 1. Dept. of Geology, Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ,
> USA.
> 2. GeoScience Consulting, Dewey, AZ, USA.
> 3. Dept. of Earth Science and Marine Science Institute,
> Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
> 4. Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR,
> USA.
> 5. Restoration Systems, LLC, Raleigh, NC, USA.
>
> More than a dozen markers, including nanodiamonds (NDs)
> and
> carbon spherules (CS), occur in a sedimentary layer marking
> the
> onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling episode at ~12.9
> ka.
> This boundary layer, called the YDB, has been found at
> nearly
> forty locations across North America, Europe, and Asia,
> although not all markers are present at any given site.
> Firestone et al. (2007) and Kennett et al. (2008, 2009)
> proposed that these markers resulted from a cosmic
> impact/airburst and impact-related biomass burning.
> Here we report features common to the YDB event, the
> Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) impact, and the Tunguska
> airburst
> of 1908.
> In sediments attributed to each event, we and other
> researchers have recovered NDs either inside or closely
> associated with CS, which appear to be the
> high-temperature
> by-products of biomass burning.
> CS range in diameter from about 500 nanometers to
> 4 millimeters with a mean of ~100 microns,
> and they typically contain NDs, including lonsdaleite
> (hexagonal diamonds), in the interior matrix and in the
> crust.
> To date, CS and NDs have been found in the K/T layer
> in the United States, Spain, and New Zealand.
> Similarly, CS and NDs have been found in the YDB layer
> in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Belgium,
> the Netherlands, Germany, and France.
> Thus far, every site examined contains NDs and/or CS in
> the
> K/T and YDB layers; conversely, we have yet to detect CS
> associated with NDs in any non-YDB sediments tested.
> Five allotropes of NDs have been identified in association
> with
> CS: cubic diamonds, lonsdaleite, n-diamonds, p-diamonds,
> and i-carbon, which are differentiated by slight
> variations
> in their crystalline structure.
> All allotropes have been identified using scanning
> electron
> microscopy (SEM), high-resolution electron microscopy
> (HREM),
> and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with
> confirmation
> by selected area diffraction (SAED).
> Lonsdaleite is found on Earth only in three instances:
> (1) in the laboratory, where it is produced by shock
> synthesis
> under a high-temperature-high-pressure regime
> (~1000?C to 1700?C at 15 GPa) or by carbon vapor
> deposition
> (CVD) under a very-high-temperature-low-pressure regime
> (~13,000?C at 300 Torr) (Maruyama et al., 1993);
> (2) after arrival on Earth inside extraterrestrial
> material; and
> (3) as a result of high-temperature cosmic
> impact/airbursts.
> Lonsdaleite associated with CS has been found in sediments
> only at the K/T, the YDB, and Tunguska, consistent with
> the
> hypothesis that all three events have cosmic origins,
> although the nature of the impactors may have been
> different.
> Contact Information: James H. Wittke,
> Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, 86011-4099
>
>
> AGU Fall Meeting 2009
> ID#? PP33B-08
> Location: 2006 (Moscone West)
> Time of Presentation: Dec 16 3:04 PM - 3:16 PM
>
> Testing Younger Dryas ET Impact (YDB) Evidence
> at Hall's Cave, Texas
> T. W. Stafford 1; E. Lundelius 2; J. Kennett 3; D. J.
> Kennett 4;
> A. West 5; W. S. Wolbach 6
> 1. Stafford Research, Inc., Lafayette, CO, USA.
> 2. Dept. of Geological Sciences, Univ. of Texas, Austin,
> TX, USA.
> 3. Dept. of Earth Science & Marine Science Institute,
> Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
> 4. Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR,
> USA.
> 5. GeoScience Consulting, Dewey, AZ, USA.
> 6. Dept. of Chemistry, DePaul Univ., Chicago, IL, USA.
>
> Hall's Cave, Kerrville County Texas, 167 km WSW of Austin,
> provides a unique opportunity for testing the presence of
> a
> chronostratigraphic datum (YDB layer) containing rare and
> exotic proxies, including nanodiamonds, aciniform soot,
> and
> magnetic spherules, the origins of which remain
> controversial,
> but possibly derive from a cosmic impact ~12,900 CAL BP.
> The karst-collapse cave in Cretaceous limestone on the
> Edwards Plateau contains ? 3.7 m of stratified clays
> grading to
> clayey silts recording continuous deposition from 16 ka RC
> yr
> to present.
> The cave's small catchment area and mode of deposition
> were
> constant, and the stratigraphy is well dated based on 162
> AMS 14C dates from individual vertebrate fossils, snails,
> charcoal, and sediment chemical fractions.
> The cave sequence contains an abundant small animal
> vertebrate
> fossil record, exhibiting biostratigraphic changes, and the
> timing
> of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction is consistent
> with
> that elsewhere in North America.
> At 151 cm below datum is the extremely sharp, smooth
> contact
> separating lower, dusky red (2.5YR3/2) clays below from
> overlying dark reddish brown (5YR3/3) clays (forming a
> 20-cm-thick dark layer) and dating to 13,000 CAL BP,
> at or close to the age of the YDB datum elsewhere.
> This appears to be the most distinctive lithologic change
> of the
> deglacial sequence.
> Sediments at or within 10 cm of this contact contain the
> local
> extinction of 4 species of bats, the local extinction of
> the prairie dog
> (Cynomys sp.) and perhaps other burrowing mammals in
> response
> to decrease in soil thickness, and the uppermost occurrence
> of 6
> late Pleistocene megafaunal taxa that, although rare in the
> cave,
> do not extend younger than 12.9 ka.
> We collected and analyzed sediments at high resolution
> above
> and below the distinct lithologic contact at 151 cm.
> The red clays from 151 to 153 cm and immediately preceding
> the
> lithologic contact contain an abundance of nanodiamonds
> (5 different allotropes), aciniform soot at 2400 ppm,
> magnetic
> spherules, and carbon spherules, all of which we interpret
> as
> evidence for a unique chronostratigraphic marker (YDB)
> in the Western Hemisphere.
> Because the age of this horizon is ~ 13,000 CAL BP, we
> interpret the age of the event as the beginning of the
> Younger Dryas cooling.
> Regional soil erosion began ~15,000 CAL BP and continued
> until 7000 CAL BP, but dating suggests that there is no
> discontinuity or hiatus in deposition, and thus, the exotic
> materials
> in that layer are not considered to be erosional
> accumulations.
> Future analyses include sub-centimeter sampling over the
> YD boundary, quantification of nanodiamonds and other
> event-proxies within 1000 yr of the boundary and in
> sediments
> several 1000 years older and younger, continued refinement
> of
> the AMS 14C record to determine within 50 yr the location
> of
> 12,900 CAL BP datum and high resolution analysis
> of small animal biostratigraphy.
> Contact Information: Thomas W. Stafford,
> Lafayette, Colorado 80026
>
> [ 30.135347 -99.537902 M. Jennifer Cooke et al, 2003 Oct,
> study of Hall's Cave, 4 p ]
> www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/banner/Publications/Halls_Cave_Geology_03.pdf
>
>
> For most of these craters, white minerals are striking.
> Analysis of elements and isotopes should prove any
> evidence
> of ET origin, and indicate temperatures and pressures
> of deposition onto target rocks from steam explosions
> of? ice comet fragments.
>
> The shared level of minimal erosion indicates
> a shared early Holocene origin.
>
> Amateurs should be encouraged to contribute observations
> and samples.
>
> Scientists can organize a center for analyzing samples at
> a
> modest profit, while freely sharing data and research.
>
> Websites, online journals, videos, magazines, books, and
> movies can generate reasonable profits in the service of
> science.
>
> The emerging insights into a past universal truama will
> lead
> to a? increased shared sense of community in our human
> family.
>
> It is necessary to assess any future risks.
>
> nanodiamond evidence for 12,900 BP Clovis extinction
> impact,
> Santa Rosa Island, discussion on Scientific American
> website,
> Carolina Bay type craters east of Las Vegas, NM:
> Rich Murray 2009.09.15
> http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.htm
> Friday, July 24, 2009
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/28
>
> widespread Carolina Bay type craters from Clovis comet
> 12,900 Ya BP? -- 0.7 M long NS crater with fractured
> red sandstone on SW rim, CR C 53A, 20 miles E of
> Las Vegas, NM: Rich Murray 2009.06.08
> http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.htm
> Monday, June 8, 2009
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/27
>
> For Google Earth, here are the Windows/Linux keyboard
> commands that make it easy to "fly" easily,
> creating an intuitive 3D grasp of the landscape -- my
> laptop
> runs at 1 GHZ with a graphics card, Windows Vista, Chrome,
> and 3 GB RAM:
>
> Full screen mode: F11
> Lat/Long grid: Ctrl L
> Slow movement down: add Alt before other keys
> Zoom in, out: PgUp, PgDn keys
> Move left, right, forward, back: arrow keys
> Tilt view up, down: Shift down arrow, up arrow
> Rotate view in circle clockwise, counterclockwise:
> Shift right arrow, left arrow
> Tilt up towards horizon, down towards directly below:
> Shift down arrow, up arrow
> Stop, start movement: space bar
> Look in any direction: Ctrl, left mouse button and drag
> New placemark: Ctrl Shift P
> To delete or rewrite a placemark title,
> right click it and select Properties.
> Reset view to north as forward:? n
> Reset tilt to top-down view: u
> Select Tools to select Web to return to your other
> screens.
>
> It's easy to look down about 45 degrees while moving
> straight
> ahead in any direction at an eye elevation of 1-200 km,
> scanning a straight strip half-way around the world,
> stopping to placemark, examine, and measure any features.
>
> http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/java/
>
> Requirements: a 3D video card with updated drivers is
> necessary.
> World Wind has been tested on Nvidia, ATI/AMD, and Intel
> platforms using Windows, MacOS 10.4, and Fedora Core 6.
>
> WW gives exact altitudes and ocean depths.
> WW images omit human features and give good resolution
> from above 30 km.
>
> http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/graphics/keychart.jpg
>
> Keyboard controls:
> Pan: arrow keys
> Rotate LR: A,D keys
> Tilt forward down, back up: W,S keys
> Zoom down, up: 7 or Home, 1 or End
> Stop: space bar or 5.
> Position info: F10
> Crosshairs: F9
> Boundaries: F5
> Placenames: F6
> Lat/Long Lines: F7
> Planet Axis: F8
> Dynamic Layers: F1
> _____________________________________________________
>
>
> Rich Murray, MA
> Boston University Graduate School 1967 psychology,
> BS MIT 1964, history and physics,
> 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
> 505-501-2298? rmforall at comcast.net
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/messages
>
> http://RMForAll.blogspot.com new primary archive
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
> group with 142 members, 1,588 posts in a public archive
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages
> group with 1204 members, 23,955 posts in a public archive
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/messages
>
> participant, Santa Fe Complex www.sfcomplex.org
> _____________________________________________________
>
>


      
Received on Sun 15 Nov 2009 06:29:51 PM PST