A Couple of Online Articles About Australian Tektites

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 18 13:36:25 EDT 2006

Dear List Members,

While browsing the Internet, I came across a couple
of articles, which are available online as PDF
documents, which might be of interest to people on
this list.

One of them is:

Pillans, Brad, 2004, Tektites as Chronostratigraphic
Markers in Australian Regolith. In I. Roach, ed.,
pp. 279-281, Proceedings of the CRC LEME Regional
Regolith Symposia, November 2004, Adelaide, Perth
and Canberra.

Apparently, Dr. Pillans, as a part of his research is
looking for tektites, which have detailed information
concerning where they were found. The article stated:

“As part of the CRC LEME geochronology
project I would like to hear from anyone
who has found tektites. I also encourage
all of you to be alert to tektites in
your field work.”

He definitely encourages people to make detailed notes
on location and the context of any tektites, which they
find, much like is done now for meteorites.

This article can be found at:

http://leme.anu.edu.au/Pubs/Monographs/regolith2004/Pillans_b.pdf

The source of this article is:

http://leme.anu.edu.au/Pubs/Monographs/Regolith2004.html

http://crcleme.org.au/Pubs/Monographs/regolith2004/a_abstract%20volume%20front.pdf

Another paper, which discusses tektites, is:

Brad Pillans, 2004, Geochronology of the Australian
Regolith, (c) CRC LEME 2004 Geochronology

This article can be found at:

http://crcleme.org.au/RegLandEvol/Geochron_of_%20Aust_Regolith.pdf

Another online paper, which mentions tektites, is:

Pillans, B., 2003, Subdividing the Pleistocene using
the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (MBB): an Australasian
perspective. Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 22,
pp. 1569-1577.

It can be found at:

http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org.uk/noticeboard/pillans.pdf

A list of his publications can fopund at:

http://wwwrses.anu.edu.au/environment/eePages/eePeople/eeBradPillans.html

Best Regards,

Paul

Searching for Information on "Mahuika Crater" (New Zealand) and Any Associated Tektites

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 17 15:55:54 EDT 2006

Dear Listmembers,

I am looking for information, including citations for any
published papers, about the age and origin of what has
been called the "Mahuika Crater", which is located off
of the coast of New Zealand. Also, have tektites actually
been found associated with it?

Best Regards,

Paul
Louisiana

New Paper on Bedout High, Australia, in EPSL

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 12 17:16:00 EDT 2006

There is a paper about a geophysical study of the Bedout High,
one porposed site for a end of Permain imapct, just off of the
nothwest corner of Australia.

Muller, R. D., A. Goncharov, and A. Kritski, 2006, Geophysical
evaluation of the enigmatic Bedout basement high, offshore
northwestern Australia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
vol. 237. pp. 264–284.

They concluded:

"The available geophysical and geological data are compatible
with an interpretation of the Bedout structure as a basement
high formed by two consecutive Paleozoic and Mesozoic
episodes of rifting roughly orthogonal to each other, associated
with basin formation east and west of the Bedout High, but
fail nearly all unequivocal criteria for impact crater recognition."

Columbian Impact Structure (??) and Deccan Basalts was “Multiple Impact and 73P

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 1 12:05:42 EST 2006

In “Multiple Impact and 73P(was..More Evidence
Chicxulub..)”, MexicoDoug at aol.com wrote


>Sterling W. writes:

<< Keller-Harting get lots of press, but nobody
<>

>

>Hola Sterling,

>

>The idea that multiple impacts ocurred doesn't

>seem to far fetched, and we can basically thank

>them for introducing it as potentially more viable

>and consistent based on top-notch fieldwork, not

>just astronomical mullings.”


Columbian Impact Structure ??

This discussion reminded me a geologic structure, which
was found in seismic surveys made for oil and gas
exploration, lying beneath the Columbian continental
shelf. It was a huge, possibly larger than Chicxulub,
circular stucture, which was a candidate for the K/T
impact site, until it was found. Once Chicxulub was
found and published, it seems to have been completely
forgotten. Does anyone know if anything had ever been
published on it? Might this still be an alternate possibility
for the K/T killer?

The Deccan Flood Basalts, An Additional Complication

To further complicate the K/T boundary controversy,
there are these findings and interpretations:

India’s Smoking Gun: Dino-Killing Eruptions
Geological Society of America Press Release, 9
August 2005

http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/05-27.htm

The abstract stated:

“In fact, most mass extinctions over the past 300 million
years have coincided with large volcanic events, said
Chenet. The general rule is that massive volcanism
like the Deccan Traps correlates with all major mass
extinctions in Earth's history, she said.”

Another article is “Volcanic prepping for dinosaur
extinction” from the October 2005 Geotimes at:

http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/oct05/NN_volcextinction.html

The abstract discussed in the above articles is:

Chenet, A.-L. Courtillot, V., Fluteau, F., Besse, J.,
Subbarao, K. V., Khadri, S., Bajpai, S., and Jay, A., 2005,
Magnetostratigraphy of the Upper Formations of the
Deccan Traps: an Constraint on the Timing of the
Eruptive Sequence. Session no. T9. Large Igneous
Provinces: Their Biotic, Climatic, and Oceanic Impact,
Earth System Processes 2 Meeting, August 8-11, 2005.
Calgary, Alberta.

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2005ESP/finalprogram/abstract_88502.htm

I find it fascinating that there seems to exist a far better
correlation between eruption of massive flood basalts
and mass extinctions than there is between impact
events and mass extinctions. This is discussed in an
interesting abstract:

Courtillot, V., and Thordarson, T., 2005, Flood basalts
appear to be the main cause of biological mass
extinctions in the Phanerozoic. Geophysical Research
Abstracts, Vol. 7, 11196, 2005
SRef-ID: 1607-7962/gra/EGU05-A-11196

http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2005/download/EGU05-J-11196-1.pdf

The who, what, and when of the K/T extinction event is
far from a settled matter.

Best

Paul