[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

[E.P. Grondine]

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

> _____________________________________________________

> 

>