Any comments on AGU Carolina Bays and YD Impact Papers ???

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed May 30 00:10:16 EDT 2007

Did anyone on this list attend the 2007 AGU talks given
on the extraterrestrial impact origin Carolina Bays and
the Younger Dryas (YD) event?

They include:

Kobres, R. et al. (2007) Formation of the Carolina
Bays: ET Impact vs. Wind-and-Water Eos Trans. AGU,
88(23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract PP43A-10

http://www.agu.org/cgi-bin/SFgate/SFgate?language=English&verbose=0&listenv=table&application=sm07&convert=&converthl=&refinequery=&formintern=&formextern=&transquery=carolina%20bays&_lines=&multiple=0&descriptor=%2fdata%2fepubs%2fwais%2findexes%2fsm07%2fsm07%7c788%7c4554%7cFormation%20of%20the%20Carolina%20Bays:%20ET%20Impact%20vs.%20Wind-and-Water%7cHTML%7clocalhost:0%7c%2fdata%2fepubs%2fwais%2findexes%2fsm07%2fsm07%7c5539757%205544311%20%2fdata2%2fepubs%2fwais%2fdata%2fsm07%2fsm07.txt

and

Howard, G. A. et al (2007) Evidence for an
Extraterrestrial Impact Origin of the Carolina Bays
on the Atlantic Coast of North America Eos Trans.
GU, 88(23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract PP42A-05 [8]

http://www.agu.org/cgi-bin/SFgate/SFgate?language=English&verbose=0&listenv=table&application=sm07&convert=&converthl=&refinequery=&formintern=&formextern=&transquery=carolina%20and%20bays&_lines=&multiple=0&descriptor=%2fdata%2fepubs%2fwais%2findexes%2fsm07%2fsm07%7c448%7c4520%7cEvidence%20for%20an%20Extraterrestrial%20Impact%20Origin%20of%20the%20Carolina%20Bays%20on%20the%20Atlantic%20Coast%20of%20North%20America%7cHTML%7clocalhost:0%7c%2fdata%2fepubs%2fwais%2findexes%2fsm07%2fsm07%7c5496677%205501197%20%2fdata2%2fepubs%2fwais%2fdata%2fsm07%2fsm07.txt

In part, the latter abstract read:

"We report results from a suite of cores taken from
within a Bay, which we have named "Howard Bay," located
about 2 km north of the town of Duart in Bladen County,
North Carolina. Located on the high western bluff of
the Cape Fear River, the Bay is 2.7 km long, 1.6 km
wide, and filled with about 9 meters of sediment with
an encircling rim that is ~1-meter high. Analyses of
seven cores along the long axis of Howard Bay reveal
an assemblage of abundant magnetic grains, microspherules,
carbon spherules, glass-like carbon, and iridium,
typical of the YDB impact layer (12.9 ka) at many other
sites across North America. The impact layer conforms
to the basal contours of the basin, suggesting that the
markers were deposited immediately or soon after the
Bay formed. Further analyses of samples in complete
core sequences reveal that, unlike typical, peat-rich
Carolina Bays, Howard Bay essentially lacks peat,
diatoms, pollen, or other organic materials, suggesting
that this Bay never stored water for any sustained
length of time. Furthermore, several trenches confirm
that the deepest part of the Bay is filled with >6 m of
cross-bedded eolian sand with no evidence of lacustrine
sedimentation."

Does anyone know anything about the specific nature of
the "...abundant magnetic grains, microspherules, carbon
spherules, glass-like carbon, and iridium...", which is
reported above? Where has "glass-like carbon" been
recognized as evidence of an impact?

Any observations or comments about these and related
Younger Dryas talks given at the AGU would be appreciated.
I am curious if they either really found something or this
evidence is more of same unsubstantiated claims, i.e. the
playa lakes in the Texas panhandle are impact craters
and the Chippewa Basin of Lake Michigan is an impact
crater, which appeared in Firestone's book.

Best Regards,

Paul