Odessa Impact Crater and OSL Dating

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 28 07:29:05 EDT 2009

E.P. Grondine wrote:

“When I visited Odessa I was told that it was suspected to be the impact of a fragment related to the Barringer impactor. My suspicion is that the Barringer impact is seen in the spike of C14 in the INTCAL98 chart around 45,000 BCE. So what is OSL dating anyway, and how accurate is it?”

The details of the dating of the Odessa crater is discussed in:

Holliday, V. T., D. A. Kring, J. H. Mayer, and R. J. Goble, 2005, Age and effects of the Odessa meteorite impact, western Texas, USA. Geology. vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 945-947.

Its abstract reads:

“Dating by optically stimulated luminescence indicates that it was produced immediately prior to ca. 63.5+/- 4.5 ka. Sediment filling the crater includes impact breccias produced at the time of impact; wind-dominated silts with minor amounts of pond sediments deposited ca. 63.5 ka, probably just after the impact...”

The PDf file can be found at:

http://www.argonaut.arizona.edu/articles/holliday_etal2005.pdf

http://www.argonaut.arizona.edu/holliday.htm

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating can be quite accurate as cross-dating between contemporaneous OSL and radiocarbon samples has demonstrated. As with any other dating
methods a person has to be careful in only dating materials that can be reliably dated; in how they collect the samples; and how they transport the samples to the OSL lab. Single-grain
OSL dating of sediments is the most reliable way of OSL dating sediments.

Web pages about OSL dating are “Luminescence Dating - Introduction and Overview of the the Technique” at:

http://crustal.usgs.gov/laboratories/luminescence_dating/technique.html

and "Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL)" at:


http://www.uic.edu/labs/ldrl/about.html
http://www.uic.edu/labs/ldrl/osl.html

A few of many, many papers and articles on OSL dating are:

1. Murray, A. M., J. M. Olley, 2002, Precision and accuracy in the optically stimulated luminescence dating of sedimentary quartz. Geochronometria. vol. 21, pp 1-16.

http://www.carbon14.pl/geo/pdf/Geo21.pdf.
2. Ballarini, M., 2006, Optical Dating of Quartz from Young Deposits From Single-Aliquot to Single-Grain. Delft University Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

http://repository.tudelft.nl/file/224774/190288

3. optically stimulated luminescence dating— an introduction

http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/periodicals/nmg/29/n4/1%20OSLintro.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Recent Papers Related to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 21 10:59:30 EDT 2009

Two recent papers related to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis are:

Woodman, N., and N. B. Athfiel, 2009, Post-Clovis survival of
American Mastodon in the southern Great Lakes Region of North
America. Quaternary Research. vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 359-363.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2009.06.009

One statement in the paper is:

"Previous study of relative numbers of preserved spores of
the dung fungus Sporormiella, used as a proxy for megafaunal
biomass, suggests that populations of large mammals were in
steep decline in northeastern North America before the onset
of the YDC."

Another paper in the same issue is:

Newby, P., J. Bradley, A. Spiess, B. Shuman, and P. Leduc,
2009, A Paleoindian response to Younger Dryas climate change.
Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 24, no. 1-2, pp. 141-154.
doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.04.010

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.04.010

Your,

Paul H.

Scientists Try to Calm '2012' hysteria

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Oct 18 12:22:34 EDT 2009

Scientists Try to Calm '2012' hysteria

2012: Combat the Nonsense, Universe Today, Oct 14, 2009
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/14/2012-combat-the-nonsense/
http://www.universetoday.com/category/2012/

2012: Eh, It's Not the End Of the World: Film & Internet
Rumors Fuel Doomsday Babble, Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101503745.html

Nasa: The end of the world is lie, Mirror.co.uk, Oct 16, 2009?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/10/17/nasa-the-end-of-the-world-is-lie-115875-21753230/

Scientists try to calm '2012' hysteria by John Johnson
Los Angeles Times, Oct 16, 2009?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-movie17-2009oct17,0,4123180.story

2012 Apocalypse, Astrobiology Magazine, Oct. 18, 2009
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/3283/2012-apocalypse

Aveni, Anthony, 2009, Apocalypse Soon? Archaeology Magazine.
vol. 62 no. 6 (November/December 2009), pp. 31-35.

http://www.archaeology.org/0911/2012/
http://www.archaeology.org/0911/

Yours,

Paul H.

More References About Geology of “World's Biggest Impact Crater” (??) Region

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 17 15:50:03 EDT 2009

In addition to papers list at:
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2009-October/057487.html and
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2009-October/057488.html
there many more references about the geology of the Bombay High region of the western Indian continental shelf where the so-called “World's Biggest Impact Crater” / "Shiva impact crater" lies tobe found.

They include:

Biswas S K 1982 Rift basins in the western margin of India and their hydrocarbon prospects; American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. vol. 66, no. 10, pp. 1497-1513.

Biswas S K 1987 Regional tectonic framework, structure and evolution of the western margin basins of India.Tectonophysics, vol. 135, issue 4, pp. 307-327

Biswas, S. K., M. K. Rangaraju, J. Thomas, and S. K. Bhattacharya, 1994, Cambay- Hazad(!) Petroleum System in the South Cambay Basin, India: Chapter 37: Part VI. Case Studies--Eastern Hemisphere. In L. B. Magoon and W. G. Dow, eds., pp. 615-624. Memoir 60,
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Duncan, R.A., 1990, The volcanic record of the Reunion Hotspot, Proceedings of the ODP, Sciences Results. vol 115, pp. 3–9.

http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/115_SR/VOLUME/CHAPTERS/sr115_01.pdf

The above publications shows paleogeographic reconstructions.

Sharma, K. K., 2007, "Cretaceous-Tertiary Tectono-Magmatism in the NW Indian shield: A fragmenting continent."

http://www.mantleplumes.org/NWIndia.html
http://www.mantleplumes.org/WebpagePDFs/NWIndia.pdf

Todal, A., and O. Edholm, 1998, ontinental margin off Western India and Deccan Large Igneous Province. Marine Geophysical Researches. vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 273-291

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g7l126p314673055/

There are a huge number of references listed at the above URL.

The unbroken URL to:

Chatterjee, S., N. Guven, A. Yoshinobu, and P. Donofrio, 2006, Shiva Structure: a possible KT boundary impact crater on the western shelf of India.Special Publications, Museum Texas Tech University. no. 50. is:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/gesc/Fac_pages/Yoshinobu/Published_pdfs/Chatterjee%20et%20al.%202006.pdf

The link to it can be found on Dr. 's publications page at:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/gesc/Fac_pages/Yoshinobu/Yosh_publications.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Additional Material Related to “World's Biggest Impact Crater” (??) India

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 17 10:21:48 EDT 2009

Dr. Chatterjee explains the Seychelles-India break-up as the result
of a massive extraterrestrial impact in:

Chatterjee, S., and N. M. Mehrotta, 2009, Significance of the
Contemporaneous Shiva Impact Structure and Deccan Volcanism
at the KT Boundary. Geological Society of America Abstracts
with Programs. vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 160.

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/abstract_160197.htm

The explanation for the Seychelles-India break-up as argued by the
majority of geologists is given in "Age of Seychelles-India break-up" at

http://www.mantleplumes.org/Seychelles.html and in:

Collier, J. S., V. Sansom, O. Ishizuka, R. N. Taylor, T.A. Minshull
and R. B. Whitmarsh, 2008, Age of Seychelles–India break-up,
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 272, no. 1-2, pp. 264-277

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.04.045

Both the web page and paper have a list of other papers about
pertaining to the geology of the structure, which Chatterjee argues
to have been created by an asteroid impact.

There is a PDF file of a nonpneer-reviewed paper that discusses h
Chatterjee's hypthesis in greater length. It is:

Chatterjee, S., N. Guven, A. Yoshinobu, and P. Donofrio, 2006, Shiva
Structure: a possible KT boundary impact crater on the western shelf
of India.Special Publications, Museum Texas Tech University. no. 20.

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/gesc/Fac_pages/Yoshinobu/Published_pdfs
/Chatterjee%20et%20al.%202006.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Paleogeographic maps for “World's Biggest Impact Crater” (??)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 17 08:53:54 EDT 2009

In “World's Biggest Impact Crater Discovered”,
(http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2009-October/057458.html ),

Carl wrote:

“Does anyone have a website of the various maps of the world millions of years ago? Would come
in handy and give things a little more perspective, I think. Where was India 65 m.y. ago?”

The maps that you are looking for can be found in

Wandrey, C. F., 1998, Bombay Geologic Province Eocene to Miocene Composite Total Petroleum System, India. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper no. 2208-F

The PDF file of this publication can be found at:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/2208/F/
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/2208/F/intro.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/2208/F/b2208-f.pdf

A few of many other pertinent references:

Basu, D. N., A. Banerjee, and D. M. Tamhane, 1980. Source areas and migration trends of oil and gas in Bombay offshore basin, India. Bulletin of American Association of Petroleum Geologists. vol 64, no. 2, pp. 209-220.

Bhandari, L. L., and S. K. Jain, 1984, Reservoir Geology and its role in the Development of the Bombay High Field, India. Journal of Petroleum Geology. vol.7, no.1, pp. 27-46.

Gombos, A. M., Jr., W. G. Powell and I. O. Norton, 1995, The tectonic evolution of western India and its impact on hydrocarbon occurrences: an overview. Sedimentary Geology. vol. 96, no. 1-2, pp. 119-129.

Mohan, M., 1985, Geohistory analysis of Bombay High region. [Histoire géologique de la haute région de Bombay.] Marine and Petroleum Geology. vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 350-360.

Naini B. R. , and M. Talwani, 1983, Structural framework and the evolution history of the continental margin of western India. In Studies in Continental Margin Geology, J. S. Watkins and C. L. Drake, eds., pp. 167-191. Memoir no. 34. American Association Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Subba Raju, L. V., K. A. K. Raju, V. Subrahmanyam, and D. G. Rao, 1990, Regional Gravity and Magnetic Studies over the Continental Margin of the Central West Coast of India. Geo-Marine Letters. vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 31-36.

Rao, R. P. and S. N. Talukdar, 1980. Petroleum geology of Bombay High Field, India. In Giant Oil Fields of the Decade, 1968-1978, M. T. Halbouty, ed., pp. 487-506, Memoir no. 30.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsas, Oklahoma.

Ramaswamy, G., and K. L. M. Rao, 1980, Geology of the continental shelf of the west of India, In Facts and Principles of World Petroleum Occurrences, A. D. Miall, ed., pp. 801-821. Canadian Society Petroleum Geologists, Memoir no. 6.

Rathore, S. S, A. R. Vijan, M. P. Singh, B. N. Prabhu and A. Sahu, 2004, Isotopic evidence of middle proterozoic magmatism from bombay high field: Implications to crustal evolution of western offshore of India. Journal of Earth System Science. vol. 113, no. 1, pp. 27-36.

The Geological Society of America 2009 Annual Meeting talk that this discussion refers to is:

Chatterjee, S., and N. M. Mehrotta, 2009, Significance of the Contemporaneous Shiva Impact Structure and Deccan Volcanism at the KT Boundary. Geological Society of America Abstracts
with Programs. vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 160,

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/abstract_160197.htm

It is part of “Paleontology: Extinction & Turnover” at

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_25248.htm

Yours

Paul H.

Wildfires and "Clovis Comet"

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Oct 15 10:09:22 EDT 2009

In "Holocene Start Impacts: EP Grondine: Rich Murray 2009.10.15" at
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2009-October/057362.html ,
Rich Murray wrote:

"I'm glad to see a new consensus rapidly evolving re widespread
Holocene Start impacts from myriad fragments of an 13 Ka BP
ice comet."

What consensus? Given that many paleoclimatologists, archaeologists,
and Quaternary geologists are having extreme problems reproducing
the results by Firestone, West, and others, it looks like the "Clovis Comet"
is turning into fiasco like the Permian-Triassic extinction claims where
Luanne Becker and scientists claimed to have found positive proof of
a Permian--Triassic extraterrestrial impact only to have it all fall apart
when other geologists, paleontologists, and paleopedologists tried to
reproduced their results and critically examined their findings.

A good example of this is a recent paper that discusses evidence
related to the "Clovis Comet" hypothesis of Firestone, west, and
others is:

Marlon, J. R., P. J. Bartlein, M. K. Walsh, S. P. Harrison, K. J.
Brown, M. E. Edwards, P. E. Higuera, M. J. Power, R. S. Anderson,
C. Briles, A. Brunelle, C. Carcaillet, M. Daniels, F. S. Hu, M.
Lavoiem, C. Longn, T. Minckley, P. J. H. Richard, A. C. Scott,
D. S. Shafer, W. Tinners, C. E. Umbanhowar, Jr., and C. Whitlock,
2009, Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America.
Proceedinds of the National Academy of Sciences. vol. 106, no. 8,
pp. 2519-2524. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0808212106

Abstract at:

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/8/2519

The abstract in part states:

"We also test the hypothesis that a comet impact initiated
continental-scale wildfires at 12.9 ka; the data do not support
this idea, nor are continent-wide fires indicated at any time
during deglaciation."

and

"Biomass burning gradually increased from the glacial period to
the beginning of the Younger Dryas. Although there are changes
in biomass burning during the Younger Dryas, there is no
systematic trend. There is a further increase in biomass burning
after the Younger Dryas. Intervals of rapid climate change at
13.9, 13.2, and 11.7 ka are marked by large increases in fire
activity."

This paper concluded:

"No continent-wide fire response is observed at the beginning
of the Younger Dryas chronozone, the time of the hypothesized
comet impact. The results provide no evidence of synchronous
continent-wide biomass burning at any time during the LGIT."

Note "LGIT" = last glacial–interglacial transition.

It is quite clear from this paper that the alleged "consensus" on
the "Clovis Comet" is quite imaginary. It looks like the validity
of the Clovis Comet is far from settled as there are many papers,
both pro and con, that are either in press or in preparation.

Yours,

Paul H.

The search for meteorite bits among the goose droppings

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 13 23:07:37 EDT 2009

The search for meteorite bits among the goose droppings
The Globe and Mail by C. Freeze and A. M. Paperny, Oct. 13, 2009

http://tiny.cc/MeteoritesGooseDroppings

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-search-for-meteorite-bits-among-the-goose-droppings/article1321365/

Astronomers Capture Spectacular Meteor Footage, Call
for Public's Assistance, Scientific Computing, Oct. 13, 2009

http://tiny.cc/CanadianFireball

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news-DS-Astronomers-Capture-Spectacular-Meteor-Footage-Call-for-Public-Assistance-101309.aspx

Yours,

Paul H.

North America comet theory questioned was “Dryas all wet”

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 13 08:35:18 EDT 2009

In http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2009-October/057294.html ,
Darren Garrison wrote:

“ http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091012/full/news.2009.997.html

North America comet theory questioned”

Rest of text deleted.

The full reference to the article at the above URL is:

North America comet theory questioned. No evidence of an extraterrestrial
impact 13,000 years ago, studies say by Rex Dalton, Nature News, Published
online October 12, 2009, doi:10.1038/news.2009.997

The paper is:

Surovell, T. A., V. T. Holliday, J. A. M. Gingerich, C. Ketron, C. Vance
Haynes, Jr., I. Hilman, D. P. Wagner, E. Johnson, and P. Claeyse. 2009,
An independent evaluation of the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact
hypothesis. Published online before print October 12, 2009,
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0907857106,

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/09/0907857106

This reminds me of the claims made by a group of researchers, which
included Luann Becker, for indicators of an extraterrestrial impact
at the Permian - Triassic and the Bedout High structure being the
impact crater. Papers were published arguing that evidence of
extraterrestrial impact, including fullerenes containing extraterrestrial
3He, are found at the Permian - Triassic boundary. Later researchers,
who restudied various Permian - Triassic boundary outcrops, including
the ones studied by Becker, and were unable to replicate their findings.
The evidence used to argue for Bedout High being an impact structure
either could not be replicate or turned out to be open to alternative
interpretations. Finally, there is a considerable amount of controversy
whether many of the fullerenes found in sediments are even of
extraterrestrial origin.

Best Regards,

Paul

Alleged Peruvian "Meteorites" For Sale :-) :-(

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Oct 12 23:19:21 EDT 2009

Dear Friends,

When I came across the below so-called / alleged
"meteorites" from Peru in a sponsored link on Ebay,
I did know whether to laugh or cry.

1. Meteorite Set

"Hard to find natural Meteorite from Peru."

http://www.shamansmarket.com/-strse-794/Meteorite-Set/Detail.bok

2. Meteorite Apu 7 Puntas Chumpi

"This Number Seven Chumpi Stone is carved from
what the people of Peru call meteorite. It is
physically very heavy and energetically alive!
Peru"

http://www.shamansmarket.com/-strse-958/meteorite-puntas-chumpi/Detail.bok#more

It is just amazing what bric and brac people are
selling as "meteorites". It is even more amazing
that there are people out, who buy this stuff.
I can understand someone buying a piece of
Shirokovsky, thinking it is a meteorite. But
this stuff?

Yours,

Paul

Geology of Lonar Crater, India (With Link to PDF File of Paper)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 2 18:17:01 EDT 2009

Maloof, A. C., S. T. Stewart, B. P. Weiss, S. A. Soule,
N. L. Swanson-Hysell, K. L. Louzada, I. Garrick-Bethell,
and P. M. Poussart. Geology of Lonar Crater, India
Geological Society of America Bulletin. Published Online
September 25, 2009, doi:10.1130/B26474.1

http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/2009/09/24/B26474.1.abstract

PDF file at:

http://web.mit.edu/iang/www/pubs/Lonar_Geology_Preprint_GSABull_submitted_2008.pdf
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/louzada/page%202.html

Auxillary Materials at:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/sstewart/reprints/papers/27_Maloof_et_al_Geology_Lonar_Crater_GSA_Bull_inpress_2009_DR.pdf
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/louzada/page%202.html

DEM file of crater at:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/sstewart/reprints/papers/lonar-dem.zip
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/louzada/page%202.html

Yours,

Paul H.

The Sudbury impact layer in the Paleoproterozoic of northern Michigan, USA

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 2 18:06:21 EDT 2009

Cannon, W. F., K. J. Schulz, J. Wright Horton, Jr., and
David A. Kring, 2009, The Sudbury impact layer in the
Paleoproterozoic iron ranges of northern Michigan, USA.
Geological Society of America Bulletin. Ahead of Print,
September 25, 2009

http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/2009/09/24/B26517.1.abstract

Pufahl, P. K., Eric E. Hiatt, Clifford R. Stanley, Jared
R. Morrow, Gabriel J. Nelson, and Cole T. Edwards, 2009,
Physical and chemical evidence of the 1850 Ma Sudbury
impact event in the Baraga Group, Michigan, Geology.
vol. 35, no. 9, pp. 827-830.

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/35/9/827

http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/hiatt/Research/Early_ocean/Pufahl_Ejecta_9_07.pdf
http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/hiatt/Research/Early_oceans.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Siberian volcanism 'wiped out world's forests' 250m years ago

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 2 17:54:31 EDT 2009

Siberian volcano 'wiped out world's forests' 250m years ago
A huge Siberian volcano destroyed the world's forests 250
million years ago in what scientists say was the worst extinction
event the planet has ever witnessed, new research has disclosed.
Telegraph, UK,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6253147/Siberian-volcano-wiped-out-worlds-forests-250m-years-ago.html

Sephton, M. A., H. Visscher, C. V. Looy, A. B. Verchovsky,and J. S.
Watson, 2009, Chemical constitution of a Permian-Triassic disaster
species. Geology. vol. 37, pp. 875-878, doi:10.1130/G30096A.1

http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/37/10/875.abstract

Yours,

Paul H.