The story below says the impact was at 76,000 mph or 111,500 feet per second. That sounds too high to me...by a factor of 3 or 4. Any comments out there?
John > No one knows whether an asteroid or a comet gouged the one-mile-deep, > 56-mile-wide crater beneath the Bay. But judging by the damage it caused > , the meteorite slammed into the planet at about 76,000 mph. The > explosion, equal to 10 trillion tons of TNT, wiped out life for miles > around, creating the largest impact crater in the United States and the > sixth-largest in the world. -------------- Original message from Ron Baalke : -------------- > > > http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=76631&ran=167519 > > Scientists blast into the Earth's past in Virginia > > David Powars, the scientist who worked tirelessly to begin the project > to study the impact crater, gives an impromptu history lesson about the > crater to tourists in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore. > David Powars, the scientist who worked tirelessly to begin the project > to study the impact crater, gives an impromptu history lesson about the > crater to tourists in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore. PHOTOS BY VICKI > CRONIS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. > > By JOANNE KIMBERLIN > The Virginian-Pilot > October 11, 2004 > > EASTERN SHORE - Crickets thrummed in the dark mist. A harvest moon > glowed orange in the heavens. The Earth moved. > > Thirty-five times. > > It shuddered repeatedly because scientists detonated a 20-mile-long > string of underground explosives along Virginia's Eastern Shore last > week. The concussions, bouncing back from far below, will help map the > most detailed profile yet of an ancient wound in the planet's crust: the > 35-million-year-old Chesapeake Bay impact crater. > > Pushing the button was the easy part; reaching countdown required a > diplomatic endeavor worthy of the United Nations . > > Scores of locals had to open their gates to dozens of scholarly visitors > - a remarkable consensus in a community that doesn't cotton much to > intrusion . > > One by one, residents yielded to the common good , and to the > long-winded, high-wattage, caffeine-powered zeal of a wiry scientist > from the Shenandoah Valley, the man who loves the crater the most . > > No one knows whether an asteroid or a comet gouged the one-mile-deep, > 56-mile-wide crater beneath the Bay. But judging by the damage it caused > , the meteorite slammed into the planet at about 76,000 mph. The > explosion, equal to 10 trillion tons of TNT, wiped out life for miles > around, creating the largest impact crater in the United States and the > sixth-largest in the world. > > Thousand-foot-tall tidal waves likely topped parts of the Blue Ridge > Mountains. > > Concealed by the Bay and filled in the passing eons by rock and > sediment, the crater wasn't discovered until the mid-1980s. > > David Powars was one of the first scientists convinced of its existence > - a notion many of his colleagues had scoffed at for years. Now > confirmed by a battery of drill samples and other tests, the crater will > be investigated deeper than ever next fall, when a $1.5 million core > hole punches 7,000 feet into its mysteries. > > Scientists now suspect the crater is the culprit behind a host of > modern-day concerns, from the region's shortage of fresh ground water to > its slow sink into the sea. Answers could lie inside layers brought up > in the drill tube. A sort of seismic ultrasound, created by last week's > blasts, will determine the bull's-eye for the drill bit. > > To get the best picture, an alphabet soup of some two dozen "ologists" - > experts in rocks, fossils, atmosphere, outer space and more - descended > on the Shore a couple of weeks ago. > > Since then, the team has laid a line of 70-foot-deep shot holes that > stretches from the center of the crater, located beneath the town of > Cape Charles, to its northeastern rim, near Nassawadox. Some 700 > seismographs, tuned to record the results, had to be poked into the soil > every 50 yards along the line. All were on private property - often > co-owned by a web of relatives. > > Powars, as the point man of the operation, began knocking on doors in > March, spinning his spiel, trying to win access to the land he needed. > > "I'd get one person's OK and then find out I also had to get it from > their cousins or their brothers or their in-laws," Powars said. "I bet I > wound up talking to 150 people. Some of them were scattered across the > country. One was in a mental institution. Let's just say that one was > interesting." > > Fortunately for Powars, talking is among the things he does best. When > he's excited, as he is about the crater, his words gush in a non stop > stream that's almost legendary. > > "We all love David," said Greg Gohn, Powars' boss at the U.S. Geological > Survey. "But you just have to walk away sometimes." > > Powars does not take offense. > > "I didn't say a word until I was 10," he said . "But I haven't shut up > since." > > His chatter proved effective with landowners. > > Many nodded immediately while others required some courting. Powars put > in plenty of hours perched on living room sofas, answering questions. > > "You can't blame them," he said. "Here was some kook wanting to blow up > things on their land." > > Some refused to open their doors to or answer calls from an outsider. To > breech their stronghold, Powars enlisted the aid of other locals, who > contacted their neighbors on his behalf. > > "By the time it was done, I was adopted," Powars said. "People were > feeding me meals. Now, I feel like I know the people better in this > community than I know the ones in my own." > > In the end, only one family resisted his enthusiasm, a rejection that > will leave a mile-long gap in the seismic profile. > > "I worked on them until the very end," Powars said, "but they were > fighting among themselves and just wouldn't come around. It's a set > back, but we'll have to live with it." > > For the most part, meteor mania blossomed as word spread. Almost 100 > people attended a meeting Powars held last month in Cape Charles. > > Tom Saunders, a project manager at the town's new Bay Creek development, > was impressed. > > "You can't get 100 people to come to a meeting in Cape Charles if you're > giving away money," Saunders said. > > Saunders helped pave the way for a shot hole on one of Bay Creek's golf > courses. > > "Astronomy is my hobby," he said, "so anything having to do with a rock > from space is interesting to me." > > Saunders would like to see sleepy Cape Charles benefit from its status > as the crater's ground zero. There has been talk of building an > > interpretive center to draw tourists. "Something like this defines the > kind of whack this old ball can take and shrug off," Saunders said. "If > one thing can put Cape Charles on the map of global significance, this > crater is it." > > Mayor Frank Lewis isn't convinced an underwater hole is marketable. > > "Seems like it'd be hard to start an industry around something no one > can see," he said. > > Other locals are more interested in basic concerns. Granville Hogg gave > Powars' crew the go-ahead to store equipment and drill shot holes on his > family's 200-acre property north of Cape Charles. Groundwater is the > payoff for Hogg. > > The crater ruptured underwater aquifers, limiting the region's fresh > water supply and leaving farmers, residents and developers accusing each > other of using too much. Studies hope to make some sense of the > fractured layers, information that could contribute to better decisions. > > "There's a whole lot of finger pointing," Hogg said, "but nobody has any > scientific data to back up any of it." > > As for the scientists themselves, they're delighted to be the first to > explore the anatomy of a crater so well preserved by the blanket of the > Bay. Exhausted by weeks spent tromping through farm fields and > bug-swarmed swamps, scientists were thrilled to finally close in on > detonation last week. > > Powars, functioning on too little sleep and too much coffee and candy, > was a verbal shockwave. An unexpected surplus of explosives and > seismographs had prompted a last-minute decision to add a short > east-west cross line of extra shot holes. > > Granville Hogg gave scientists permission to blast on his property in > the hopes that it will reveal why the area's groundwater is limited. > > Dashing up and down the line in his pick up, Powars veered off to soothe > a jittery landowner here, an overworked team member there. > > "This is just so exciting," he jabbered, with no apparent need for a > breath. "We've waited so long. I can't wait to see what this thing looks > like. Everyone thought an impact this big would wipe out the planet. > Now, we know they were wrong. We're all so tired. No one knows what's > under there, you know. A crater like this is just so expensive to drill. > We know so little about them. Could be some oil down there, but I think > it's too young for that. Could be gold, platinum, diamonds. A crater in > Canada is pumping out nickel right now, you know." > > By that night, even Powars was silenced by the explosions. Synchronized > by satellite-set timers, the blasts went off between 10:30 p.m and > sunrise to minimize vibrations from traffic that might be picked up by > the sensitive seismographs. Gravel and sandbags capped the shot holes, > directing the explosions downward to reveal the topography up to nine > miles beneath the surface. As they went off, a wave of mini-earthquakes > rocked the Shore. > > Under foot, they rippled by with a rubbery jolt. > > Inside homes, they rocked beds and rattled dishes. > > Despite efforts to get the word out beforehand, many residents were > alarmed. > > "Our dispatcher said she must have had 200 phone calls from folks > wanting to know what was going on," said Capt. David Doughty of the > county sheriff's department. > > "I thought a car ran into my house," said Berkley Rayfield, a pharmacist > in Cape Charles. Others wondered if a plane had crashed, if the military > was up to something, if another meteor had hit, if Iraq had invaded. > > "Me and my husband were up all night," said Cela Burge, Cape Charles' > town manager. "It really freaked us out." > > A series of shallower, less-powerful explosions, set off during the day > , was expected to wrap up Sunday. From there, the recordings will be > entered into a computer and analyzed. Powars hopes to have a sketch of > his crater by December. > > His hunch says the data will pinpoint Eyre Hall as the best spot for > next year's deep-hole project. The colonial-era plantation, located just > south of Eastville, belongs to Furlong Baldwin. Shot holes already dot > the property. The deep hole could bring an international circus of > science types to a place Baldwin treasures for its peace. > > "I've already told David that we'll cross that bridge when we come to > it," Baldwin said. "If I can just get him to stop talking, I'll probably > agree to anything." > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
