Including Original "Paul H. Letters" Copyright © 1996-2024 Paul V. Heinrich / website © 1996-2024 Dirk Ross - All rights reserved.



Monday 29 December 2008

Siberian flood basalts and the end-Permian environmental crisis

Siberian flood basalts and the end-Permian environmental crisis

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 29 00:58:40 EST 2008

In press in the "Earth and Planetary Science Letters" is:

Svensen, H., S. Planke, A. G. Polozov, N. Schmidbauer, F. Corfu,
Y. Y. Podladchikov, and B. Jamtveit, in press, Siberian gas
venting and the end-Permian environmental crisis. Earth and
Planetary Science Letters.

The PDF file for this paper can be found at:

http://folk.uio.no/yuripo/papers/svensen_epsl_09.pdf

They concluded that that heating of Tunguska Basin sediments by
the ascending magma of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province
was capable of playing a key role in end-Permian environmental
crisis. They argue that the cooking of organic-rich shales and
petroleum-bearing evaporites around sill intrusions produced
sufficient volumes of greenhouse gases and halocarbons to cause
warming and atmospheric ozone depletion on a global scale. They
estimated that the metamorphism of organic matter and petroleum
generated over 100,000 Gigatons of CO2 that were released through
enormous pipe structures associated with kilometre-sized craters.
They also argue from laboratory experiments that cooking of
petroleum-bearing rock salt at high temperatures by the magmas
generated huge quantities of methyl chloride and methyl bromide
that have resulted not only in global warming but also global ozone
depletion.

PDF files of ther papers of Dr Henrik Svensen can be found at:

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/publications.htm

The source of PDF file of related papers where noted in
"[meteorite-list] Online PDF files about Permian-Triassic
extinction" at;

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2008-December/048424.html

Note: I am only summarizing what the above paper states. As
result, this post reflect only the opinions of the authors
of the above paper and **not** my own opinions on this subject.
Thus, any disagreements should directed to the paper and it
authors and **not** me. Furthermore I feel no obligation to
defend their conclusions as I am still in the process of
evaluating the arguments made in this paper.

Yours,

Paul H.

Saturday 27 December 2008

Meteorite impacts Scotland

Meteorite impacts Scotland

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 27 22:47:36 EST 2008

"http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7795381.stm
(OK, it was a little while back :) )"

More details can be found at:

Microscopic meteorites show early life on Earth faced
rain of rocks Media Releases, Office of External Affairs,
University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=1643

"Microscopic meteorites found in Scotland have unveiled
major clues about a catastrophic event which dramatically
altered the Earth’s surface nearly 500 million years ago."

The paper discussed in the above articles is:

Parnall, J., 2009, Global mass wasting at continental
margins during Ordovician high meteorite influx. Nature
Geoscience. vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 57 - 61, Published
online: 14 December 2008 | doi:10.1038/ngeo386

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v2/n1/abs/ngeo386.html

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v2/n1/index.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 25 December 2008

Online PDF files about Permian-Triassic extinction

Online PDF files about Permian-Triassic extinction

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 25 00:46:13 EST 2008

Dear Friends,

The PDF files for a number of papers about the Permian
- Triassic extinction can be downloaded from:

http://pangea.stanford.edu/research/paleobiology/publications.php

They include:

Payne, J.L. and Kump, L.R. 2007. Evidence for recurrent
Early Triassic massive volcanism from quantitative
interpretation of carbon isotope fluctuations. Earth
and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 256, pp. 264-277.

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~jlpayne/Payne%20and%20Kump%202007%20EPSL.pdf

Payne, J.L., Lehrmann, D.J., Follett, D., Seibel, M.,
Kump, L.R., Riccardi, A., Altiner, D., Sano, H., and
Wei, J. 2007. Erosional truncation of uppermost Permian
shallow-marine carbonates and implications for
Permian-Triassic boundary events. Geological Society
of America Bulletin. vol. 119, pp. 771-784.

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~jlpayne/Payne_et_al_2007_GSABull.pdf

Knoll, A.H., Bambach, R.K., Payne, J.L., Pruss, S.,
and Fischer, W. 2007. Paleophysiology and end-Permian
mass extinction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
vol. 256, pp. 295-313.

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~jlpayne/Knoll%20et%20al%202007%20EPSL%20Permian%20Triassic%20paleophysiology.pdf

Lehrmann, D. J., Payne, J. L., Pei, D., Enos, P.,
Ellwood, B., Orchard, M.J., Zhang, J., and Wei, J.
2007. Record of the end-Permian extinction and
Triassic biotic recovery in the Chongzuo-Pingguo
Platform, southern Nanpanjiang Basin, Guangxi,
south China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology. vol. 252, pp. 200-217.

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~jlpayne/Lehrmann%20et%20al%202006%20Geology.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Monday 8 December 2008

UPHEAVAL DOME: CONFIRMATION OF IMPACT ORIGIN

UPHEAVAL DOME: CONFIRMATION OF IMPACT ORIGIN

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 1 09:19:54 EST 2008

Stefan Brandes wrote:

" a newly discovered Crater in Utah:
http://lpod.wikispaces.com/November+29%2C+2008 "

Look at:

http://www.mail-archive.com/meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com/msg64615.html

The paper discussing the shocked quartz is:

Buchner, E., and T. Kenkmann, 2008, Upheaval Dome, Utah, USA:
Impact origin confirmed. Geology. vol.36, no. 3, pp. 227-230.

In part, this abstract stated:

"In this study, we document, for the first time, shocked
quartz grains from this crater in sandstones of the
Jurassic Kayenta Formation. The investigated grains
contain multiple sets of decorated planar deformation
features. ... The shocked quartz grains were found in
the periphery of the central uplift in the northeastern
sector of the crater, which most likely represents the
cross range crater sector."

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FG24287A.1
and http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/full/36/3/227?ck=nck

and there is :

I. Upheaval Dome, Utah - Bibliography By Alpha and By
Reverse Date by K. Fisher, November 25, 2008 at:

http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/observed/Upheaval/Bibliography.html

III. Buchner, E., and T. Kenkmann, 2008, Upheaval Dome,
Utah, USA: Impact Origin Confirmed. Large Meteorite
Impacts and Planetary Evolution IV, held August 17-21,
2008 at Vredefort Dome, South Africa. LPI Contribution
No. 1423, paper id. 3005.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008LPICo1423.3005B

Some interesting related papers are:

W. Alvarez, E. Staley, D. O'Connor, and M. A. Chan,
1999, Synsedimentary deformation in the Jurassic of
southeastern Utah; a case of impact shaking? Geology.
v. 26; no. 7, pp. 579-582.

Abstract at:

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/26/7/579
http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2F0091-7613(1998)026%3C0579%3ASDITJO%3E2.3.CO%3B2

PDF file at:

http://eps.berkeley.edu/~platetec/125.pdf

Dan Bridges, L. W., W. Alvarez, E. Staley, D. O'Connor,
and M. A. Chan, 1999, Synsedimentary deformation in the
Jurassic of southeastern Utah; a case of impact shaking?;
discussion and reply. Geology. v. 27, no. 7, pp. 661-662

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2F0091-7613(1999)027%3C0661%3ASDITJO%3E2.3.CO%3B2

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

IAG Planetary Geomorphology Featured Images

IAG Planetary Geomorphology Featured Images

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Dec 3 23:25:39 EST 2008

Past Featured Images, Arranged by Place and by Topic
http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/bytopic.html

Past Featured Images, Image index
http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/index.html

Some Examples:

Inverted Paleochannels on Earth and Mars
http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/may08image.html

Unconsolidated Gravels on Asteroid Itokawa
http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/nov07image.html

Deltaic sediments on Mars
http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/oct08image.html

High resolution image of Mars delta
ttp://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/jezerodelta.jpg

Yours,

Paul H.

Location of Australian Opal Miner’s “mega meteorite crater”

Location of Australian Opal Miner’s “mega meteorite crater”

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Dec 3 10:26:01 EST 2008

In “Opal miner stumbles on mega meteorite crater -
With Picture”, Jason Utas wrote:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/opal-miner-stumbles-on-mega-meteorite-crater/2008/11/22/1226770814042.html

Text of article deleted.

For those people interested in Google Earth the location of
this suspected carter is 30 degrees, 47.8 minutes, 8.94
seconds S., 143 degrees, 8 minutes, 43.05 seconds E.

or -30.7858166667, 143.145291159

I have a kmz file that I can email interested parties.

another article about this crater is:

“Opal miner fossicks up a mega meteorite crater” at:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/opal-miner-fossicks-up-a-mega-meteorite-crater/2008/11/22/1227375050742.html

Some more articles about the Canadian meteorite crater.

Meteorite hits on Earth: There may be a recount:
Meteorite craters might not be as rare as we think. A
University of Alberta researcher has found a tool
that could reveal possibly hundreds of undiscovered
craters across Canada and around the world.

http://www.physorg.com/news146841660.html

Unveiling hidden craters

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39004/title/Unveiling_hidden_craters

How Many Meteorites Have Landed In Western Canada?
Prospects For The Missing Holocene Impact Record
Science Daily, Dec. 1, 2008

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081126091541.htm

More Meteorites May Hit Earth Than Supposed: New Tool
Gives A Recount, Nov. 25, 2008

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081125141600.htm

Yours,

Paul H.

Monday 1 December 2008

Free PDF File About Possible Impact Generated Seismites

Free PDF File About Possible Impact Generated Seismites

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 1 09:22:55 EST 2008

Dear Friends,

PDF files of a study of possible impact related
seismite can be found online. It is:

Simms, M. J., 2003, Uniquely extensive seismite from
the latest Triassic of the United Kingdom: Evidence
for bolide impact? Geology. v. 31, no. 6, p. 557-560.

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/31/6/557

PDF File at:

http://www.habitas.org.uk/staff_pdf_files/Impact.pdf

Yous,

Paul H.

Sunday 23 November 2008

Question About Nanodiamonds was "Discovery.com Ancient N.Y. Tsunami?"

Question About Nanodiamonds was "Discovery.com Ancient N.Y. Tsunami?"

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 23 22:25:08 EST 2008

On November 22, 2008,

Paul Harris forwarded:

"Did Asteroid Cause Ancient N.Y. Tsunami?
From: Anne Black impactika at aol.com

Hi, Anne Black
A friend of yours, Kevin Decker just asked us to pass
this along to you. Here's the link at Discovery.com
that they thought you'd be interested in seeing.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/20/asteroid-tsunami.html "

In this story and in the AGU abstracts, we are reading
much about nanodiamonds. Does anyone know of any papers
about how a person goes about looking for nanodiamonds
in sediment samples?

Where does a person find a description of the procedures
used to extract and concentrate the carbon spherules and
nanodiamonds for analysis?

By the way, an article, for what it is or is not worth, about
nanodiamonds is "Lucy in the Sky with Nanodiamonds" at

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/20080107/perrin-c.shtml

Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Microtektites and Micrometeorites in Antarctica

Microtektites and Micrometeorites in Antarctica

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 18 16:10:42 EST 2008

Some new papers about microtektites and micrometeorites
in Antarctica are:

Rochettea, P., L. Folcob, C. Suaveta, M. van Ginnekenb,
J. Gattaccecaa, N. Perchiazzic, R. Brauchera, and R. P.
Harveyd, 2008, Micrometeorites from the Transantarctic
Mountains. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. Published online before print November 14,
2008, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0806049105

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/14/0806049105.abstract
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/14/0806049105.full.pdf+html

+++++

Folco, L., P. Rochette, N. Perchiazzi, M. D'Orazio, M.A.
Laurenzi, and M. Tiepolo, 2008a, Microtektites from
Victoria Land Transantarctic Mountains. Geology. vol. 36,
no. 4, pp. 291-294, DOI: 10.1130/G24528A.1

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/36/4/291

+++++

Folco, L., P. Rochette, N. Perchiazzi, M. D'Orazio, M.A.
Laurenzi, and M. Tiepolo, 2008, Microtektites from the
Northern Victoria Land Transantarctic Mountains: An
Update. 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference,
(Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX), held March
10-14, 2008 in League City, Texas. LPI Contribution
No. 1391., p.1180

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008LPI....39.1180F
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1180.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Sunday 16 November 2008

The British Royal Society Digital Archives are open (free) to public until Feb 2009

The British Royal Society Digital Archives are open (free) to public until Feb 2009

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 16 17:11:26 EST 2008

The British Royal Society Digital Archives are open to public
until February 2009. Until then, people can download PDF files
from their archives. A search for meteorites yielded 141 results
as found at:

http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/?k=meteorite&sortorder=asc

Information on the archive can be found here:

http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1600

While the archive itself can be accessed here:

http://journals.royalsociety.org/home/main.mpx

It might be time for folks to look over their wishlists and
see what you can download in the next 3 months.

Yours,

Paul H.

Friday 14 November 2008

North American Glaciation Finally Dated

North American Glaciation Finally Dated

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 14 12:12:57 EST 2008

People, who work with Quaternary meteorite impacts should
know that the age and duration of the Illinoian (“glacial”)
Stage has finally been directly determined in its type
region by the Illinois State Geological Survey. As a part
of research associated with geological mapping in north-central Illinois, they recovered cores that sampled the the full
thickness of Illinoian glacial tills (Glasford Formation)
and outwash (Pearl formation) lying within an ancient buried
valley of the Mississippi River. Using optically stimulated
luminescence (OSL) dating, they were able to date Illinoian
glacial outwash overlying and interbedded with Illinoian
glacial tills. Using OSL dating, they also dated glacial
outwash underlying the oldest Illinoian glacial till, the
Kellerville Till Member, comprising the glacial sediments
that define the Illinoian Stage.

The Illinois State Geological Survey found was that the
glacial sediments, which comprised the Illinois glacial lobe,
all accumulated over a period of time between 130,000 to
200,000 years ago. Because these sediments define the
Illinoian Stage, it is approximately equivalent in time to
Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 instead of Marine Isotope
stages 6, 7, and 8 together, a period of time from 130,000
to 300,000 BP, as previously hypothesized. Based upon
this research, the geologists at the Illinois State Geological
Survey now infer that the Yarmouth Geosol (paleosol), which
underlies Illinoian glacial sediments that buried it, was
created by weathering of older glacial deposits from about
191,000 to 424,000 years ago during a period of geologic
time equivalent to Marine Isotope stages 7, 8, 9, 10, and
11.

An article, abstract, and powerpoint presentation about the
OSL dating of the Illinoian Stage are:

(1.) McKay, E.D., 2007, Six Rivers, Five Glaciers, and an Outburst
Flood: the Considerable Legacy of the Illinois River. Proceedings
of the 2007 Governor's Conference on the Management of the
Illinois River System: Our continuing Commitment, 11th Biennial
Conference, Oct. 2-4, 2007, 11 p.

http://ilrdss.sws.uiuc.edu/govconf2007/session2a/DonMcKay.pdf

(2.) McKay, E.D., and R.C. Berg, 2008, Optical ages spanning
two glacial-interglacial cycles from deposits of the ancient
Mississippi River, north-central Illinois. Geological Society of
America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 40, No. 5, p. 78
Abstract at:

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008NC/finalprogram/abstract_137641.htm

(3.) Powerpoint presentation at:

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/viewHandout.cgi?uploadid=295

In addition, it has been about a quarter of a century since
North American geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists
abandoned the climatic and chronological framework used by
early geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists to subdivide
glacial and nonglacial deposits within north-central United States
into four glacial and interglacial stages. About a quarter of a
century ago, the accumulation of stratigraphic and chronological
data discredited the Yarmouthian (interglacial), Kansan (glacial),
Aftonian (interglacial), and Nebraskan (glacial) stages as being
scientifically meaningless as either climatic, stratigraphic, or
chronostratigraphic subdivisions of the Pleistocene. As a result,
the use of these stages to classify north American Quaternary was
abandoned and they were all merged into the Pre-illinoian Stage.
For further reading about why the Nebraskan, Aftonian, Kansan,
and Yamouthian stages were abandoned by North American
geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists as antiquated and
meaningless nomenclature, a person can read:

Aber, J.S., 1991, Glaciations of Kansas. Boreas. vol. 20, no. 4,
pp. 297-314.

Boellstorff, J., 1978, Chronology of some Late Cenozoic deposits
from the central United States and the Ice Ages. Transactions of
the Nebraska Academy of Science. vol 6, pp. 35–49.

Hallberg, G.R., 1986, Pre-Wisconsin glacial stratigraphy of the
Central Plains region in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri,
Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 5, pp. 11-15.

Richmond, G.M. and D.S. Fullerton, 1986, Summation of Quaternary
glaciations in the United States of America. Quaternary Science
Reviews. vol. 5, pp. 183-196.

Roy, M., P.U. Clark, R.W. Barendregt, J.R., Glasmann, and R.J.
Enkin, 2004, Glacial stratigraphy and paleomagnetism of late
Cenozoic deposits of the north-central United States, Geological
Society of America Bulletin. vol. 116, no. 1-2; pp. 30-41;
DOI: 10.1130/B25325.1

The PDF file for Roy et al. (2004) can be found at:

http://geo.oregonstate.edu/people/faculty/publications/clarkp/Royetal-
GSAB-2004.pdf

Stiff, B. J., and A.K. Hansel, 2004, Quaternary glaciations in Illinois. in Ehlers, J., and P.L. Gibbard, eds., pp. 71-82, Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology 2: Part II North America, Elsevier, Amsterdam. ISBN 0-444-51462-7

A nice summary of the relationships between the North American,
English, and European Pleistocene stratigraphic nomenclature can
be found in “Global correlation tables for the Quaternary” at;

http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org.uk/correlation/chart.html

and McMillan, A.A., 2005, A provisional Quaternary and Neogene
lithostratigraphic framework Great Britain, Netherland Journal of
Geosciences. vol. 84, n0. 2, pp, 87-107.

It can be found at:

http://www.njgonline.nl/publish/articles/000245/article.pdf

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/680/

I have written more about the North American Quaternary stages
for Wikipedia at:

1. Illinoian Stage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinoian_Stage

2. Pre-Illinoian Stage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Illinoian_Stage

and 3. Kansan glaciation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansan_glaciation

These pages have references and links to PDF files that
a person can freely download.

Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

What Publication has the Best Definition of "Tektite"?

What Publication has the Best Definition of "Tektite"?

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 11 09:50:18 EST 2008

Dear Friends,

I need to define what a "tektite" is. What paper,
book, or other publication has, in your opinion,
has the best definition of the term "tektite"?

Yours,

Paul H.
Baton Rouge, LA

Saturday 18 October 2008

Reevaluation of the Tektites from Proposed Mahuika Impact (New Zealand)

Reevaluation of the Tektites from Proposed Mahuika Impact (New Zealand)

Friday, October 17, 2008 4:07 AM

A Reevaluation of the Tektites Associated with
the Proposed Mahuika Impact, Mohana Kumar, Earth
and Environmental Sciences Journalism, Columbia
University - Master's Thesis

links to PDF file of Master's Thesis

http://www.mohikumar.com/science.html


http://www.mohikumar.com/PDFs/Science_Thesis_with_Abstract.pdf


Masters Thesis Figures

http://www.mohikumar.com/PDFs/Figures_final.pdf


Yours,

Paul H.

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites

Friday, October 17, 2008 4:20 AM


Sterling K. Webb wrote:

>Are these "alleged tektites" that you refer to the
>ones found in Glenmora, Rapides Parish, that were
>reported on by King in 1970?
>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1970Metic...5Q.205K

>No abstract or paper available. I guess these
>tektites are not popular.

Yes, they are the ones that I referred to.

>Former (?) List member Ed Albin:
>http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LPSC99/pdf/1357.pdf

>"King [1968] described a bediasite find within the
>upper Eocene Wellborn Formation in Grimes County,
>Texas. This deposit has been traced eastward and
>correlates with the Yazoo Clay Formation in Louisiana,
>Mississippi, Alabama, and the Dry Branch Formation
>in Georgia. It is entirely possible that North American
>tektites may eventually be recovered from upper
>Eocene deposits between Georgia and Texas."
>
>But were King's tektites North American tektites in
>composition? Wetback Bediasites, as it were?

According to King (1970), their composition was
identical to certain Australites. They also were
dated by K/Ar dating to about the same age as
Australites. Therefore, they clearly are not North
American strewn field tektites. I expect that when
someone looks at the right outcrop, that tektites
of the North American strewn field will be found
in either Eocene strata of the right age or
redeposited in younger Pliocene or Pleistocene
gravels within Louisiana.

>In 1986, leading geochemist Cristian Koeberl
>said the King tektites from Louisiana were Australites:
>http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ea.14.050186.001543?journalCode=earth

>I can't get to that paper, naturally.

Again, that is what King (1970) concluded from
composition and K/Ar dating. The tektite examined
by King (1970) was one of two specimens sent him
by an unnamed "Louisiana rancher" as possible
meteorites. The rancher said that he had found
it and two other similar specimens at a "local"
gravel pit in 1965.

>I can get to this paper by Koeberl (and so can
>everybody else on the List). It's his analysis
>of the Cuban "tektite" which proved to be a
>member of the North American strewnfield:
>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1988Metic..23..161K

>but I can't pull a quote out as the paper's a page
>image, not text. The gist of Koeberl's remark is
>that the "Cuban" tektite is genuine, in distinction
>to King's tektites which were "allergedly" found in
>Louisiana, were then discovered to be Australites,
>and therefore could not have come from Louisiana.
>He said that they were a fraud, in other words.
>The tektites are tektites, but is the find a find
>in Louisiana?

The problem, as I have discovered doing archaeology,
is that people can be vary careless in keeping track,
what specimen was found and where it was and what
specimens were bought and where they were bought.
Unfortunately, some collectors of artifacts, fossils,
rocks, and tektite get their specimens mixed up and
lose track of what was found where. It was 5 years
between when the specimens were reported to have
been found and King's paper. One possibility is that
the collector lost track of where and how he
originally obtained the specimens. The question is
one of human carelessness that abounds among some
collectors.

There is the archaeological site in Hawaii where
hundreds of European Paleolithic artifacts were found
that shows how prehistoric materials have been
unintentionally moved about by humans in historic
times. How that happened is another story that is
quite instructional about how stuff gets misplaced
around the world by accident.

>but is the find a find in Louisiana?

That is the key question as King (1970) pointed out.

>What Koeberl was not aware of is that some years
>later Alan Hildebrandt (another geochemical
>authority) found some Australities in and around
>Tikal, the ancient Mayan city in Guatemala adjacent
>to the Yucatan. On the global scale, Louisiana and
>the Yucatan a mere tektite's throw apart, and both
>roughly antipodal to the Australasian strewnfield.

The Tikal tektites are unexplained. They consist
of 11 "nodules" found among obsidian tools in
various parts of the Tikal site, Guatemala. Unlike the
"Louisiana tektites", they were found during
archaeological excavations. Thus, it is known that
they are "in situ" at least within the region within
prehistoric times. It has been suggested that they
are tektites of the Muong Nong type. Also, they have
been Ar/Ar dated at 800,000+/-100,000 BP. Nothing
like them has been found at any other site or parts
of Central America. The Tikal tektites, like any
other tektite, continue to defy any attempt to
explain them.

A Couple Tikal tektite references:

Nagy, H. M.,2002, Tikal Report 27B: The Artifacts
of Tikal : Utilitarian Artifacts and Unworked
Material, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Publication, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hildebrand, A. R., Moholy-Nagy, H., Koeberl, C.,
May, L., and others, 1994, Tektites found in the
ruins of the Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala. Lunar
and Planetary Science, vol. 77, pp. 213-219.

>If this is the case, then no amount of analysis of
>the "alleged" tektites is meaningful -- they are
>tektites!

I agree with King, Koeberl, and you that they are
tektites. The problem, which King (1970) also discusses,
is that it is uncertain whether these tektites came from
Louisiana or not.

>You would need instead need to investigate the
>circumstances of the find, the character and motives
>of the finder. This would seem to be a difficult goal
>to pursue definitively after a 38 year lapse.

That is what I have been doing off and on for a couple
of years. Having checked NASA, University of Houston,
king's daughter, and many other places, I found that
all of the field notes, laboratory notes, pictures,
maps, and specimen(s) related to King (1970) have
apparently been lost. Nobody, whom I have contacted,
know where these materials are. If anyone has any ideas
where these materials might be / can be found, please
drop me a note off-list with your ideas and suggestions.

>But if they are (both) Australites and were discovered
>in situ, that in itself is major news (or an inconvenience
>to be ignored, of course), like the Ivory Coast tektite
>(identified by analysis in 1982 by Shaw and Wasserberg)
>found off the coast of Australia in the sea bed. (Currents?
>Yeah, sure...)
>
>If Koerberl said the Louisiana tektites were real
>(and Australites), then they were tektites. No question.
>Better go find some more! Did anybody record the exact
>location of the find?

Apparently Dr. King did know as he and "three field
assistants" spent three days at the gravel pit looking
for more tektites and found none. While, talking with
people, I found that his daughter also accompanied
them to look for tektites. However, she did not
remember anything about the pit's location. Unfortunately,
any field or personal notes and maps about the exact
location of the gravel pits have apparently all been
either misplaced or discarded and utterly lost for any
practical purposes. Without this information, it is
impossible to find out who the "Louisiana rancher" was
and check to see if he might have either any more
specimens or information.

Another problem is that the gravel pits around Glenmora,
Louisiana have been largely reclaimed. Thus, even if we
knew exactly where the gravel pit was located, very
likely there would be nothing except grass and ponds to
look at.

If a person applies what is known about the local
geomorphology and Pleistocene sediments, there is a
specific “stratigraphic” horizon where a person can
expect to find them, if they exist. That is where I am
looking for them. Also, I have contacted knowledgeable
people have, after a fashion, have been looking over
the locations where any tektites might be found
around Glenmora on a regular basis for decades. What
they have and have not found does say something
about whether Louisiana tektites might exist. The
specific details of the above part of the story are
best told at another time and in another venue.

Yours,

Paul H.


Online Moldavite papers (including "Moldavites: a review")

Online Moldavite papers (including "Moldavites: a review")

Friday, October 17, 2008 11:28 PM

The Czech Geological Survey has a number
of papers published in the Bulletin of
the Czech Geological Survey. These papers
include some that discuss Moldavites.

The Czech Geological Survey web page is at:

http://www.geology.cz/extranet-eng


http://www.geology.cz/extranet-eng/search


The papers, which found are:

Trnka, M., and Houzar, S., 2002, Moldavites: a
review. Bulletin of the Czech Geological Survey.
Vol. 77, No. 4,pp. 283-302.

http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/2002/vol77no4/04trnkafinal.pdf


Artemieva, N., E. Pierazzo, and Stoffler, D.,
2002, Numerical modeling of tektite origin in
oblique impacts: Implication to Ries-Moldavites
strewn field. Bulletin of the Czech Geological
Survey. vol. 77, no. 4, pp. 303-311.

http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/2002/vol77no4/05artemievafinal.pdf


Sevcik, J., Z. Kvacek, and D. H. Mai, 2007, A
new mastixioid florula from tektite-bearing
deposits in South Bohemia, Czech Republic
(Middle Miocene, Vrábče Member). Bulletin
of Geosciences, Vol. 82, No. 4, 429-436,

http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/2007/vol82no4/bullgeosci200704429.pdf


Kvacek, Z., and V. Teodoridis, 2007, Tertiary
macrofloras of the Bohemian Massif: a review
with correlations within Boreal and Central
Europe. Bulletin of Geosciences, Vol. 82,
No. 4, 383-408. Bulletin of Geosciences, Vol. 82, No. 4, 429-436,

http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/2007/vol82no4/bullgeosci200704429.pdf


Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 16 October 2008

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites 1

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 1:14 AM

Dear Friends,

Can anyone recommend a publication that provides a
comprehensive listing of Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates
that have been published for the North American and
Australasian tektites?

Also, what the authorative reference(s) work for
the bulk composition of tektites from each of these
strewn fields?

Any citations, which you can recommend would be
greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Paul H.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites

Question About Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates for North American and Australasian Tektites

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 14 12:14:55 EDT 2008

Dear Friends,

Can anyone recommend a publication that provides a
comprehensive listing of Potassium-Argon (K/Ar) dates
that have been published for the North American and
Australasian tektites?

Also, what the authorative reference(s) work for
the bulk composition of tektites from each of these
strewn fields?

Any citations, which you can recommend would be
greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Paul H.

Saturday 11 October 2008

Species Extinction By Asteroid A Rarity

Species Extinction By Asteroid A Rarity

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 11 23:16:51 EDT 2008

University of Southern California (2008, October 10). Species
Extinction By Asteroid A Rarity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October
11, 2008, from

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081007102904.htm

Greene, S. E., D. J. Bottjer, F. A. Corsetti, and J. P. Zonneveld,
2008, Mass Extinction Déjà Vu: Seafloor Aragonite Fans near the
Triassic-Jurassic Boundary. Geological Society of America Abstracts
with Program. vol. 40, no. 6, p. 222.

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008AM/finalprogram/abstract_147579.htm

Martindale, R., 2008, Paleoecological Patterns of Reef Death and
Possible Causes for the Carbonate Collapse at the End-Triassic
Mass Extinction. Geological Society of America Abstracts with
Programs. vol. 40, no. 6, p. 279

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008AM/finalprogram/abstract_142398.htm

Heydrari, E. and others, 2008, Mantle Plumes and Phanerozoic
Biological Crises: Application to the Permian – Triassic Boundary
Mass Extinction. Geological Society of America Abstracts with
Programs. vol. 40, no. 6, p. 98.

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008AM/finalprogram/abstract_146945.htm

Richoz, S., and others, 2008, Repeated Photic Zone Euxinia after
the Triassic-Jurassic Mass-Extinction Event. Geological Society
of America Abstracts with Programs. vol. 40, no. 6, p. 505,

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008AM/finalprogram/abstract_146441.htm

A related news release is:

Extinction Theory Falls From Favor: The Great Dying 250 million
years ago happened slowly, according to USC geologists.
http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/14432.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Asteroid blast may have thwarted life on Mars

Asteroid blast may have thwarted life on Mars

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 11 22:51:56 EDT 2008

Asteroid blast may have thwarted life on Mars
The Times, by Jonathan Leake, October 5, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4882708.ece

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Canada was a refuge during Permian-Triassic extinctions

Canada was a refuge during Permian-Triassic extinctions

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 1 09:43:52 EDT 2008

Canada a refuge in prehistoric holocaust by Randy Boswell
Canwest News Service, September 30, 2008
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=7e1d9583-f96b-4148-bec1-2cd1f66bad57

Canada's shores saved animals from devastating climate
change, EurekAlert, September 30, 2008
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/uoc-css093008.php

Beatty, T. W., J-P Zonneveld, and C. M. Henderson, 2008,
Anomalously diverse Early Triassic ichnofossil assemblages
in northwest Pangea: A case for a shallow-marine habitable
zone. Geology. vol. 36, no. 10. pp. 771-774.

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FG24952A.1&ct=1

Yours,

Paul H.

Monday 15 September 2008

Koronis asteroid dust within Antarctic ice

Koronis asteroid dust within Antarctic ice

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 15 14:45:10 EDT 2008

Koronis asteroid dust within Antarctic ice

Genge, M. J., 2008, Koronis asteroid dust within Antarctic ice.
Geology. vol. 36, no. 9, pp. 687-690.

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FG24493A.1

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=0091-7613

Ancient Koronis Space Rocks Reveal The Origin
Of Cosmic Dust, Submitted by News Staff on
2 September 2008 -

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/ancient_koronis_space_rocks_reveal_the_origin_of_cosmic_dust

Origin Of Cosmic Dust That Lands On Earth Discovered

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080902075227.htm

Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 11 September 2008

New Summary Paper on Permian Extinction (Downloadable for Free)

New Summary Paper on Permian Extinction (Downloadable for Free)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 11 13:14:08 EDT 2008

Dear Friends,

"GSA Today"'s feature article for September is about the Permian
extinction. It is:

Bottjera, D. J., M. E. Claphama, M. L. Fraisera, and C. M.
Powersa, 2008, Understanding mechanisms for the end-Permian
mass extinction and the protracted Early Triassic aftermath
and recovery. vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 4-10.

It can be downloaded from:

http://www.gsajournals.org/archive/1052-5173/18/9/pdf/i1052-5173-18-9-4.pdf

and

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FGSATG8A.1&ct=1

Yours,

Paul H.
Baton Rouge, LA

Monday 1 September 2008

Pingualuit (One Last Post Before the Gustav Comes)

Pingualuit (One Last Post Before the Gustav Comes)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 1 09:03:46 EDT 2008

Charles O'Dale wrote:

" http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckexpeditions/2813874599/

I just returned from northern Quebec where I was exploring the
Pingualuit impact structure. This image gives you an appreciation
for the size of the crater!

Some URLs about Pingualuit Impact Crater.

St-Onge, G., H. Guyard, R. Pienitz, S. Hausmann, and others,
2007, Preliminary Chronostratigraphy of Pingualuit Impact
Crater Lake Sediments (Nunavik, Canada): a Possible Arctic
Terrestrial Record of Several Glacial/Interglacial Cycles.
Eos Trans. AGU. vol. 88, vol. 52. Fall Meet. Suppl.,
abstract no. U13B-1150
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.U13B1150S
http://cgrg.geog.uvic.ca/abstracts/St-OngePreliminaryThe.html

New Images: Pingualuit Crater, Canada
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17919

Google Earth - Chubb Crater / New Quebec Crater /PINGALUIT CRATER
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/903182

Laval University Paleolimnology and Paleoecology Laboratory.
Pingualuit Crater Lake Project.
http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/pingualuit/index.html
http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/paleo/Projets/Pingualuit/index.html

University of Arkansas. (2007, December 11) Arctic Impact
Crater Lake Reveals Interglacial Cycles in Sediments.
http://dailyheadlines.uark.edu/11974.htm

Arctic Impact Crater Lake Reveals Interglacial Cycles In Sediments
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071215212916.htm

Pingualuit National Park
http://www.fapaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/consultation/pingualuit/

Yours,

Paul H.

Sunday 31 August 2008

ATTN : Hurricane Gustav Evacuation

ATTN : Hurricane Gustav Evacuation

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 31 00:51:35 EDT 2008

Dave Carothers wrote:

"Best of luck, Mike. Having been stationed at Keesler
AFB in Biloxi, I know what you are going through.
God speed."

Some quotes:

"The mother of all storms." and "This is the storm of the century."
- Mayor Ray Nagin.

"This is as worst as it can get." - Gov. Bobby Jindle

They are now predicting that Gustav will be a Category 4 (and
possibly even 5 at times) Hurricane with 15 to 20 foot storm
surge. The coastal areas and parishes are going to get hammered
very, very badly if the predictions come true. In Baton Rouge,
we will definitely be with out power for days at least. The
only saving grace is that being in the northwest side of the
hurricane, the wind will blow any trees in our yard away from
the house if they should fall. Just as long as there are not
any tornadoes, we should be able to ride out what looks to be
a rather rough sleigh ride on Monday. I and Irina have all
of our supplies, money, full tank of gas in both of our cars,
and so forth. Now all we can do is wait and make the remainder
of the preparations. It feels like what it would be like to
know that a medium-size meteorite was headed toward a part
of Earth near me.


>From the looks of it, this will be worst than either Katrina,

Rita, or Andrew, which I have all been through here and from
what I have heard of it, at least either as bad as or worse
than Betsy even as far inland as Baton Rouge, LA.

People are "getting out of Dodge City".

Hurricane Gustav Evacuees Make Way To Chicago
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/hurricane.gustav.hurricane.2.806975.html

Then there is this:

Gustav's potential storm surge could inundate Houma
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20080830/ARTICLES/808309944/1212&title=Gustav_s_potential_storm_surge_could_inundate_Houma

Gustav could send a 25-foot wall of water into Terrebonne,
Lafourche, meteorologist says
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20080830/HURBLOG/808300293&title=Gustav_could_send_a_25_foot_wall_of_water_into_Terrebonne__Lafourche__meteorologist_says

Best regards,

Paul

Tuesday 26 August 2008

Acraman Corrections and Bunyeroos

Acraman Corrections and Bunyeroos

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 26 17:29:40 EDT 2008

Sterling K. Webb wrote:

“Don't ask me what a Bunyeroo is... Maybe a relative of
the Bunyip?”

Your guess is as good as mine. :-) :-)

Whatever a Bunyeroo might be, there is a gorge and creek
in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia named after it.

A brief description of the geology, including the Acraman
impact bed exposed in Bunyeroo George can be found in:

Webb, G. 2005. The geology of Bunyeroo, Brachina, and
Parachilna Gorges. In: (eds.) Aikman, A., Lilly, K., Célérier,
J., Kovács, I., and Estermann, G., An excursion guide to the
Flinders Ranges, South Australia, Journal of the Virtual
Explorer, Electronic Edition, ISSN 1441-8142, Volume 20,
Paper 2.

http://virtualexplorer.com.au/journal/2005/20/webb/

Tsunamis and super-hurricanes after the Acraman
asteroid impact

http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/11108/mj39_tsunamis_acraman.pdf

Flinders Ranges National Park Bunyeroo and Wilcolo Creeks Hike

http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/pdfs/BUNYEROO_WILCOLO_HIKE.PDF

Yours,

Paul H.

Downloadable Paper and web Page about Scandinavian Impact Structures

Downloadable Paper and web Page about Scandinavian Impact Structures

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 26 13:36:48 EDT 2008

There is online a paper about Scandinavian impact
structures, which can be downloaded for free. It is:

Dypvik, H., J. Plado, C. Heinberg, E. Hakansson, L. J.
Pesonen, B. Schmitz and S. Raiskila, 2008, Impact
structures and events – a Nordic perspective. Episodes.
vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 107-114.

It can be downloaded from

http://www.episodes.org/backissues/33igc/15%20Impact%20%20structures-r.pdf

The link to this paper and table of contents for the issue
of Episodes containing it can be found at:

http://www.episodes.org/backissues/33igc/33igc.htm

Also, there is "Store runde strukturer i norsk natur" at:

http://www.geo.uio.no/groper/

Yours,

Paul H.

Monday 18 August 2008

Meteorite impact structures: the good and the bad

Meteorite impact structures: the good and the bad

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 18 09:15:01 EDT 2008

While looking for something else I came across a general article
about impact structures. It is:

Osinsk, G. R., 1999, Meteorite impact structures: the good and
the bad. Geology Today. vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 13-19.

The PDF file is at:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119400823/PDFSTART

The abstract is at:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119400823/abstract

Yours,

Paul H.

Sahara Paleoclimate was "When the Sahara was wetter (relevant to your interests)"

Sahara Paleoclimate was "When the Sahara was wetter (relevant to your interests)"

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 18 00:09:02 EDT 2008

David Garrison wrote:

" http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f79/bougainvillea1/Relevant_to_interests_hedgehog.jpg

How wet and for how long and how recently the Sahara
was wet of course is a determining factor in the ages
of the older Saharaian meteorites. (of course the 1,000
years ago is an error on the part of the article writer

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26203952/

Remains of cemetery found in Sahara A thousand
years ago, the now-barren desert was moist and
green By Randolph E. Schmid updated 6:28 p.m.
ET, Thurs., Aug. 14, 2008"

The dissication of the Sahara Desert is discussed in
"Climate and environmental history of the Sahara: the
last 6000 years" by Dr.Patrick Honecker at:

http://www.pressoffice.uni-koeln.de/1651+M5f856bfc5ae.html

He states:

"The results of this work document a progressive drying
of the regional terrestrial ecosystem between 5600 and
2700 years ago, in response to gradually decreasing
tropical monsoon rainfall. This drying followed a logical
ecological sequence starting with tropical grassland trees
and herbs being replaced by typical Sahel vegetation,
followed by loss of grass cover and establishment of
the modern desert plant community that is largely
restricted to oases."

and

"In summary, this new environmental reconstruction from
within the Sahara proper strongly contrasts with the
generally accepted hypothesis that the ‘green Sahara’
which existed between 10,000 and ~6000 years ago had ended
abruptly."

The paper ("work") discussing the paleoclimatology of the
Sahara Desert is:

Francus, P., J.-P. Cazet, M. Fagot, B. Rumes, J. M. Russell,
F. Darius, D. J. Conley, M. Schuster, H. von Suchodoletz, and
D. R. Engstrom, 2008 Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in
the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years. Science. vol. 320, no. 5877,
pp. 765-768.

The abstract to this paper can be found at:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/320/5877/765
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18467583?dopt=Abstract

Their paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the pollen from a
continuous core covering 6000-year from northern Chad indicates
a "progressive drying of the regional terrestrial ecosystem"
that resulted in strong reductions in tropical trees and then
Sahelian grassland cover" and "large-scale dust mobilization"
starting about 4300 calendar years before the present. They
concluded that "today's desert ecosystem and regional wind
regime were established around 2700 calendar years before
the present."

A PDF file of this paper can be found at:

http://www.old.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/geomorph/docs/Kroepelinetal_2008.pdf

A discussion of this paper can be found in "Study:
Sahara Gradually Dried Up Over 6,000 Years" at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90289718

Another recent paper about the paleoclimatology of the
Sahara Desert is;

Bubenzer1, O., and H. Riemer, 2007, Holocene Climatic
Change and Human Settlement Between the Central Sahara
and the Nile Valley: Archaeological and Geomorphological
Results. Geoarchaeology, vol. 22, no. 6, 607–620.

For the eastern Sahara, they conclude:

"The evidence derived from archaeological excavations and
surveys coupled to nearly 500 14C dates (Figure 2) suggests
that the Holocene wet phase lasted from approximately
9500–6000 B.P. (9000–5000 cal. B.C., calibration: dispersion
calibration program, Cologne 2001, www.calpal.de). After
the hyper-arid Pleistocene, the tropical summer rain front
moved about 700–1000 km northward (e.g., Haynes, 1987;
Neumann, 1989a; Pachur and Hoelzmann, 2000), which
initiated more humid conditions in the Eastern Sahara."

Notice that the Pleistocene before 9,500 BP was hyper-arid
and the "wet" Sahara was only from 9500–6000 B.P.

An interesting web page on this topic is "Africa During the
Last 150,000 Years" by Jonathan Adams at:

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nercAFRICA.html
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/new_africa.html
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/refs.html

This is what he has to say about the Sahara:

"(dates in Guo et al are given in 14C years ago on the
left, approximate calibrated of 'real' dates are given
on the right)

Moist 9,500-8,200 14C ya (10,400-9,100 ya)
Slight drying 8,200-8,000 14C ya (9,100-8,900 ya)
Moist 8,000-7,000 14C ya (8,900-7,900 ya)
Moderately dry 7,000-5,700 14C ya (7,900-6,500 ya)
Moist 5,700-4,000 14C ya (6,500-4,500 ya)
Very dry - as dry as at present - 4,000-3,800 14C ya (4,500-4,100 ya)
Slightly moister than present 3,800-3,500 14C ya (4,100-3,700 ya)
After 3,500 14C ya (3,700 ya). Remaining about as dry as at present"

Yours,

Paul H.

Sunday 17 August 2008

Russian Sikhote Aline Meteorite Film

Russian Sikhote Aline Meteorite Film

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 17 23:14:32 EDT 2008

Dear Friends,

While looking for something else, I came across the below Russian
meteorite film in the Library of Congress Cataloge.

"THE SIKHOTE ALINE METEORITE (1956) FEA 1315-16
Central Documentary Film Studio 35mm
Dir: I. Gradov, Consultant: V. Fesenkov

A well-photographed documentary film on the scientific
investigation of the Sikhote Aline Meteorite that fell in Siberia in
1947. Print is in good shape, with one splice. Probably of most
interest to specialists, either in meteorology or those interested in
Soviet scientific methods in the late 1940s.

English track."

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/findaid/russian.html

Yours,

Paul H.


Thursday 14 August 2008

It came from the sky: school rock an ancient meteorite (Australia)

It came from the sky: school rock an ancient meteorite (Australia)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 14 23:05:57 EDT 2008

It came from the sky: school rock an ancient meteorite
by Dimity Barber, Berwick leader, August 14, 2008

http://www.berwickleader.com.au/article/2008/08/13/41154_blv_news.html

The first few sentences states:

"CLYDE Primary School has been rocked by news it is the
custodian of a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite.

Principal Maurie Richardson said the school had received word from Museum Victoria that an 85kg rock now on display at the school is a fragment of Cranbourne’s world-famous meteorite shower."

...rest of text omitted...

More Photographs of Meteorite

http://tools.leadernewspapers.com.au/photo_galleries/gallery.php?id=1375

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Articles on Impact Caused "megatsunami chevrons" and URL Correction

Articles on Impact Caused "megatsunami chevrons" and URL Correction

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 13 23:59:48 EDT 2008

First, I found a couple of very interesting articles about the
alleged "'megatsunami chevrons", which are argued to have
been caused by megatsunamis by Dallas Abbott (at Lamont
Doherty Earth Observatory) and her co-workers. The articles
are:

1. Some questions about the 'megatsunami-chevrons' at
http://zsylvester.blogspot.com/2008/03/some-questions-about-megatsunami.html

and 2. Some questions about the 'megatsunami chevrons':
addendum at:

http://zsylvester.blogspot.com/2008/05/some-questions-about-megatsunami.html

in addition, one of the URLs does not work in my last post,
"[meteorite-list] Re Here We Go Again About Terminal
Pleistocene Impact" at:

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2008-August/046160.html

The URL for "States and Stability of Climate System", PDF file,
should be:

http://www.iac.ethz.ch/education/bachelor/climate_systems/notizen/Climate-States-and-Stability.pdf

It discusses the Younger Dryas.

Yours,

Paul H.

Re Here We Go Again About Terminal Plesitocene Impact

Re: Here We Go Again About Terminal Pleistocene Impact

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 13 23:21:14 EDT 2008

In http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2008-August/046148.html ,
Darren Garrison noted the article “Comet strike would be cataclysmic” at:

http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news/Comet-strike-end-world-scenario/article-265193-detail/article.html

The article states:

“Fiery debris from the comet also melted
huge portions of the ice sheet, which
drastically altered the planet's climate.
Massive volumes of fresh water found
their way into the oceans and changed
their currents, plunging the Earth into
an Ice Age for 1,000 years.”

It is interesting to note that Dyke (2004) made a detailed study of
the deglaciation of North America. As a part of this study, he
constructed and published in this paper a series of detailed
paleogeographic maps showing the extent of ice starting at 18,000
C14 BP and ending at 5,000 C14 BP. for time periods ranging from
500 to 100 years.

From calculating ice volumes using these paleogeographic
maps Dyke (2004) states:

“The world’s largest ice sheet complex lost
<10% of its area prior to 14 ka BP. It then
retreated nearly linearly until 7 ka BP, by
which time only 10% of the area remained
more glaciated than today. This linear
reduction of area, as currently understood,
was interrupted by two events: a reduced
rate of recession during the later half of the
Younger Dryas, and an increased rate as ice
was clearing from Hudson Bay (Fig. 5).
These events are clearer when plotted on
the calendar time scale, because the
radiocarbon time scale abbreviates the
duration of the impact of the Younger Dryas
effect in North America (Fig. 5b).”

At the beginning of the Younger Dryas, Dyke (2004) shows a lack
of any abrupt increase in the retreat (melting) of the North American
ice sheet. So far, the proponents of this theory have provided a
single shred of evidence that massive melting of the ice sheets, as
described in the newspaper article, actually occurred.

There is significance evidence of the discharge of large amounts
of freshwater from either Lake Agassiz, the melting of the Keewatin
ice dome, or combination of both sufficient to shut down
thermohaline circulation within the Atlantic Ocean, i.e. Alley (2000),
Broecker (2003), and Tarasov and Peltier (2006). The water
contained by Lake Agassiz was already there and was simply
released, not created, abruptly.

References:

Alley, R.B., 2000, The Younger Dryas cold interval as
viewed from central Greenland. Quaternary Science
Reviews. vol. 19, no. 1-5, pp. 213-226.

Broecker, W.S., 2003, Does the Trigger for Abrupt
Climate Change Reside in the Ocean or in the Atmosphere?
Science. vol. 300, pp. 1519-1522.

Dyke, 2004 A.S. Dyke, An outline of North American
deglaciation with emphasis on central and northern Canada.
In: J. Ehlers and P.L. Gibbard, EDS., pp. 373–424,
Quaternary Glaciations—Extent and Chronology, Part II
vol. 2b, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Tarasov , L., and W.R. Peltier, 2005, A calibrated deglacial
drainage chronology for the North American continent:
evidence of an Arctic trigger for the Younger Dryas.
Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 25, pp. 659–688

Also, look at:

States and Stability of Climate System, PDF file at:

http://www.iac.ethz.ch/education/bachelor/climate_systems/notizen/Climate-States-and-Stability.pdf.

The newspaper article also stated:

“It left no impact crater but sparked the
biggest wildfires in history, which stretched
across the continent and suffocated humans
and animals with overwhelming amounts
of soot and smoke, leaving the few survivors
with no vegetation or prey to live on.

The just published paper, which I mention in my previous post
comments on this claims. The paper is;

Buchanan, B., M. Collard, and K. Edinborough, 2008,
Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact
hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. Published online before print August 12,
2008, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0803762105

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/11/0803762105.abstract

They noted:

"Given that the ET impact is proposed to have
occurred north of the Great Lakes, if the trough
represents a population decline, there should be
significantly fewer Paleoindian radiocarbon dates in
northern latitudes during the second time period
compared with the first and third time periods.
This is not the case."

They concluded:

"The results of our analysis are consistent with recent
comments by Pinter and Ishman (13) and Haynes (14).
Pinter and Ishman reject Firestone et al.’s (1) claim
that there was a devastating ET impact north of the
Great Lakes at 12,900+/-100 calBP."

and

“The results of the analyses were not consistent
with the predictions of extraterrestrial impact
hypothesis. No evidence of a population decline
among the Paleoindians at 12,900 ± 100 cal BP
was found.”

Note:

"Pinter and Ishman (13)" = Pinter, N., and S. E. Ishman, 2007,
Impacts, mega-tsunami, and other extraordinary claims. GSA
Today. vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 37-38.

http://www.gsajournals.org/archive/1052-5173/18/1/pdf/i1052-5173-18-1-37.pdf

Also look at figure 4 at:

http://www.hallofmaat.com/images/004Fig.jpg

Notice there were three major periods of rapid vegetational change
in the northeast Midwest and southeast United States as indicated
by the green lines, None of them correspond to Firestone’s
hypothesized impact. There is a complete lack of any evidence in
the paleovegetation records from numerous lake cores in these
areas for Firestone’s hypothesized impacts. Given the claims
made for the size, magnitude, and devastation of his hypothesize
impact, it is impossible for entire ecosystems to have been
devastated by continent-wide wildfires and not significantly changed
the vegetation in an abrupt manner The lack of any apparent effect
on vegetation in North America as illustrated by Jacobson et al.
(1987) grossly contradicts, if not refutes, the geopoetry, which
appears in this newspaper article, about continent-wide
devastating wildfires.

References cited:

Jacobson, George L., Jr., Webb, Thompson, III, and Grimm,
Eric E., 1987, Patterns and rates of vegetational change
during the deglaciation of North America. in W. F. Ruddiman
and H. E. Wright, Jr., eds., pp. 277-287. North America
Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation. The Geology
of North America. vol. K-3. Geological Society of America,
Boulder, Colorado.

Yours,

Paul H.

OT Humor The CERN Rap or Quantum Physicists Gone Wild :-) :-)

OT Humor The CERN Rap or Quantum Physicists Gone Wild :-) :-)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 13 16:02:20 EDT 2008

CERN Rap by Will Barras at

http://www.vimeo.com/1431471?pg=embed&sec=1431471

Yours,

Paul H.

New PNAS Paper About Firestone’s Impact Hypothesis

New PNAS Paper About Firestone’s Impact Hypothesis

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 13 12:44:12 EDT 2008

The paper is:

Buchanan, B., M. Collard, and K. Edinborough, 2008,
Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact
hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. Published online before print August 12,
2008, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0803762105

The abstract is at

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/11/0803762105.abstract

Jaconson et al. (1987) did a study of the rate at which the
vegetation of North America changed during the last 15,000
years. They found from the examination of sevreal well-dated
and continuous paleovegetational records that there were
only three major periods of rapid vegetational change in the
northeast Midwest and southeast United States during this
time. None of them correspond to the time of Firestone’s
hypothesized impact. There is a complete lack of any
evidence of significant vegetation changes in the
paleovegetation records from numerous lake cores for
Firestone’s hypothesized impacts. These times are shown
as green lines in Figure 4 at:

http://www.hallofmaat.com/images/004Fig.jpg

Given the claims made for the size, magnitude, and
devastation of his hypothesize impact, the complete lack of
any significant effect, which can be seen the paleovegetational
records in cores from any of numerous lakes within the
Midwestern and eastern North America, as summarized
by Jaconson et al. (1987), raises the same questions about
Firestone’s hypothesis that the analysis of radiocarbon
dates by Buchanan et al. (2008) does.

References cited:

Jacobson, George L., Jr., Webb, Thompson, III, and Grimm,
Eric E., 1987, Patterns and rates of vegetational change
during the deglaciation of North America. in W. F. Ruddiman
and H. E. Wright, Jr., eds., pp. 277-287. North America
Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation. The Geology
of North America. vol. K-3. Geological Society of America,
Boulder, Colorado.
Yours,

Paul H.

Friday 1 August 2008

Virtual Global Geologic Map to be Released to the Internet

Virtual Global Geologic Map to be Released to the Internet

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 1 09:03:42 EDT 2008

Geological mapping gets joined up by Jennifer Carpenter
Science reporter, BBC News, July 31, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7535379.stm

“The world's geologists have dug out their maps and are
sticking them together to produce the first truly global
resource of the world's rocks.”

-------

Welcome to OneGeology
http://www.onegeology.org/home.html

"OneGeology is an international initiative of the geological
surveys of the world and a flagship project of the
'International Year of Planet Earth'. Its aim is to create
dynamic geological map data of the world available via
the web. This will create a focus for accessing geological
information for everyone. Thanks to the enthusiasm and
support of participating nations the initiative has
progressed rapidly and geological surveys and the many
users of their data are excited about this ground-breaking
project. These pages provide a background to the
initiative as well as up to date information on its progress.
We invite you to explore the site and we welcome you to
OneGeology. Enjoy your visit!"

Yours,

Paul H.

Saturday 26 July 2008

Antarctic Meteorites

Antarctic Meteorites

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 26 22:21:05 EDT 2008

Antarctic Meteorites

http://www.rosssea.info/meteorites.html

This an article of "Ross Sea Information"

http://www.rosssea.info/index.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Online Source of Free Landsat and other aerial imagery

Online Source of Free Landsat and other aerial imagery

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 26 16:42:40 EDT 2008

Below is a web page, which appeared on a geography
and geomorphology mailing list. I though it might be
useful for people interested in meteorites and impact
craters.

About GLCF at:

http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/aboutUs/

"Primary data and products available at the GLCF are
free to anyone via FTP. Online datasets may be accessed
electronically through the Earth Science Data Interface
(ESDI)."

Data & Products (available datasets) at:

http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/

Landsat - GeoCover, Landsat ETM+, Landsat MSS, and
Landsat TM at:

http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/landsat/

ASTER Imagery at:

http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/aster/

Yours,

Paul H.

Friday 25 July 2008

Thanks For Help "Catalog of Meteorites" Software Problem

Thanks For Help "Catalog of Meteorites" Software Problem

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 25 11:19:43 EDT 2008

I thank Sean, Sterling, Marco, Pete, Bob, and everyone else for
their advice for how to solve the problem with the “Catalog of
Meteorite” software. The URLs, which you all provided were
very helpful in finding the software and were to put it.

Helpful URLs for this type of error provided in an email to me:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=.dll+error+message&meta=
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000749.htm

Best Regards,

Paul H.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Problem With "Catalog of Meteorites" Software Problem

Problem With "Catalog of Meteorites" Software Problem

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 23 14:16:47 EDT 2008

Dear Listmembers;

I am having a problem with the CD-ROM bibliography, which
comes with the Catalog of Meteorites, 5th Edition, by Grady
and others. I have ‘tried installing it on my Latitude Dell Laptop
with Windows XP on it. I tried running it in order to get the
bibliography for the Atlanta, Greenwell Springs, and Red River
meteorites. When I try opening it tells me that “CTL3D.DLL”
is missing. Does anyone know what I can do about it. I tried
reinstalling it and gives me the same error message.

Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Using GIS for Meteorite Hunting and Study

Using GIS for Meteorite Hunting and Study

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 26 23:52:17 EDT 2008

McCartney Taylor wrote

"I, too, am a GIS person. Since Land ownership &
GIS has just been brought up, I have to take this
one step farther and mention good & free
GIS packages."

I do not bother with ESRI as a GIS program even though
where I work has a group license for it. It takes a long,
long
time to learn how to work. Instead, I use Global Mapper,
which only costs about 300.00 dollars and is very easy to
use and does what I need it to do. Also, their support
people, not only return email and other inquiries about
problems, they typically do it the same day that you
contact them. More information can be found at:

Global Mapper - http://www.globalmapper.com/

It does a spectacular job with Digital Elevation Models
(DEMs)
especially those made from LIDAR data. Some examples of
DEMs made from the LIDAR data can be seen in "The
Scotlandville, Denham Springs, and Baton Rouge Faults - A
Map Guide for Real Estate Buyers, Sellers, and Developers
in
the Greater Baton Rouge Area" at

http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/deploy/uploads/BRFaultsGuide.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Mars hit by huge object four billion years ago, study finds

Mars hit by huge object four billion years ago, study finds

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 26 09:08:30 EDT 2008

Asteroid impact made Mars two-faced, Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/06/25/scimars125.xml

Giant impact explains Mars dichotomy EurekAlert (press release), DC
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/ciot-gie062308.php

Mystery Behind Mars’s Lopsided Shape Revealed eFluxMedia
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Mystery_Behind_Marss_Lopsided_Shape_Revealed_19520.html

Yours,

Paul H.

100th Anniversary of the Tunguska impact Nature issue

100th Anniversary of the Tunguska impact Nature issue

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 26 09:05:06 EDT 2008

The latest issue of Nature (Volume 453 Number 7199)
celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Tunguska impact.
It has papers and articles about impact events on the Moon
and Mars and NEOs. The URL for this issue is:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7199/

The articles and papers include:

1. Planetary science: Tunguska at 100

2. Planetary science: The hole at the bottom of the Moon

3. Planetary science: The burger bar that saved the world

4. Gallery feature: All craters great and small

5. What Spaceguard did

6. Planetary science: Forming the martian great divide

7. Mega-impact formation of the Mars hemispheric dichotomy
by Margarita M. Marinova, Oded Aharonson & Erik Asphaug
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7199/abs/nature07070.html

8. The Borealis basin and the origin of the martian crustal dichotomy
Jeffrey C. Andrews-Hanna, Maria T. Zuber & W. Bruce Banerdt
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7199/abs/nature07011.html

9. Implications of an impact origin for the martian hemispheric dichotomy
F. Nimmo, S. D. Hart, D. G. Korycansky & C. B. Agnor
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7199/abs/nature07025.html

Giant Asteroid Flattened Half of Mars, Studies Suggest, Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=giant-asteroid-flattened

Mars' two-faced riddle 'solved', BBC News, UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7473128.stm

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 25 June 2008

New Paper on Silverpit (Impact ??) Structure, North Sea

New Paper on Silverpit (Impact ??) Structure, North Sea

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 25 15:31:00 EDT 2008

Dear Friends,

In the Journal of the Geological Society, there is a new paper on the proposed
Silverpit Impact Structure. It is:

Wall, M.L.T. , and J. Cartwright and R.J. Davies, 2008, An Eocene
age for the proposed Silverpit Impact Crater. Journal of the Geological
Society. vol. 165, no. 4, pp. 781-794
DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492007-138

http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=1441435
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4ABEBE2BF6408E5C5CB6

Using seismic stratigraphy, and microfossil, including calcareous nanofossil,
data from regional wells, they dated the age of the first sediments onlapping
into this structure. This relationship suggests that the structure is Middle
Eocene in age. As a result, they conclude that this structure is 10 to 15 million
years younger than previous age estimates and this structure is far too young
to be associated with the K-T boundary. They also argue that the Silverpit
structure is considerably younger than when regional folding and salt
flowage occurred. This, they argue makes it too young to have been created
by this regional folding and salt flowage as argued by other papers.

Silverpit crater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverpit_crater

North Sea crater shows its scars
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4360815.stm

Yours,

Paul H.