NASA finds extra-terrestrial amino-acids in Sudan meteorites

Life Ingredients Found in Superhot Meteorites
National Geographic by Andrew Fazekas, Dec. 20, 2010‎
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/101220-asteroid-meteorite-life-space-science/

NASA discovers amino acids on an 'impossible' meteorite
Wired.co.uk by Mark Brown, Dec. 22, 2010‎
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/22/amino-acids-meteorite

Meteorite Holds Amino Acid Surprise
Discovery News by Ron Cowen, Dec. 21, 2010‎
http://news.discovery.com/space/meteorite-amino-acids-101221.html

The paper is:

Glavin, D. P., A. D. Aubrey, M. P.  Callanhan, J.P. Dworkin, 
J. E. Elsila, E. T. Parker, J. L. Bada, P. Jenniskens, and 
M. H. Shaddad, 2010, JOURNAL TOOLS Extraterrestrial 
amino acids in the Almahata Sitta meteorite. Article first
published online: 13 DEC 2010
DOI: 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2010.01094.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2010.01094.x/abstract

The paper is in "Special Issue: 2008 TC3 and Almahata Sitta" 
of Meteoritics & Planetary Science. The table of contents is at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291945-5100/homepage/custom_copy.htm 

Happy Holidays,

Paul H.

How the world bounced back from Permian-Triassic Extinctions

How the world bounced back: Massive haul of 
20,000 ancient fossils in China shows new life 
after biggest mass extinction of all time by Niall
Firth, Mail Online, Dec. 22, 2010.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1340756/Massive-haul-20-000-ancient-fossils-China-life-Earth-bounced-biggest-mass-extinction-time.html 


New fossil site in China shows long recovery of life 
from the largest extinction in Earth’s history. press
release, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2010/7398.html 


Cache in Chinese Mountain Reveals 20,000 Prehistoric 
Fossils by Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience, Dec. 21, 2010
http://www.livescience.com/history/prehistoric-fossils-reveal-mass-extinction-recovery-101221.html

and Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222093204.htm

The paper is:

Hu, S.-X., Q.-Y. Zhang, Z.-Q. Chen, C.-Y. Zhou, T. Lu,
T. Xie, W. Wen, J.-Y. Huang, and M. J. Benton, 2010,
The Luoping biota: exceptional preservation, and 
new evidence on the Triassic recovery from end-
Permian mass extinction. Proceedings of the Royal 
Society B (Biology)Published online before print 
December 23, 2010, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2235
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/12/11/rspb.2010.2235

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Paul H.

Worldwide Readers of the E-Pistles of Paul 24DEC2010

Worldwide Readers of the E-Pistles of Paul 2010 A.D. (c) ClustrMaps 2010
(click on image to enlarge)

Current Country Totals

From 6 Apr 2010 to 18 Dec 2010

United States (US)	2,417
Canada (CA)	256
United Kingdom (GB)	112
Japan (JP)	96
Germany (DE)	94
Austria (AT)	68
Australia (AU)	64
Indonesia (ID)	51
Italy (IT)	45
France (FR)	41
Netherlands (NL)	40
Serbia (RS)	38
Poland (PL)	28
India (IN)	24
Russian Federation (RU)	20
Brazil (BR)	20
Belgium (BE)	18
Chile (CL)	17
Ireland (IE)	17
Finland (FI)	16
Romania (RO)	16
Spain (ES)	15
Sweden (SE)	15
Taiwan (TW)	15
Czech Republic (CZ)	13
South Africa (ZA)	13
Morocco (MA)	11
Mexico (MX)	11
Norway (NO)	11
Hungary (HU)	10
Switzerland (CH)	10
Puerto Rico (PR)	10
Malaysia (MY)	10
Philippines (PH)	8
Turkey (TR)	8
Denmark (DK)	8
Oman (OM)	7
Slovakia (SK)	7
New Zealand (NZ)	7
Singapore (SG)	7
Egypt (EG)	6
Korea, Republic of (KR)	6
Pakistan (PK)	6
Saudi Arabia (SA)	6
Europe (EU)	6
Croatia (HR)	6
Macedonia (MK)	5
Estonia (EE)	5
Iraq (IQ)	5
Greece (GR)	5
Portugal (PT)	5
Argentina (AR)	5
Venezuela (VE)	5
Slovenia (SI)	4
Colombia (CO)	4
Latvia (LV)	3
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)	3
Thailand (TH)	3
Kuwait (KW)	3
Vietnam (VN)	2
Israel (IL)	2
Tanzania, United Republic of (TZ)	2
Guatemala (GT)	2
Uruguay (UY)	2
Sudan (SD)	2
Dominican Republic (DO)	2
Costa Rica (CR)	2
Sri Lanka (LK)	2
United Arab Emirates (AE)	2
Nigeria (NG)	2
Bulgaria (BG)	2
Benin (BJ)	2
Peru (PE)	1
Ecuador (EC)	1
Netherlands Antilles (AN)	1
French Polynesia (PF)	1
Panama (PA)	1
Ghana (GH)	1
Senegal (SN)	1
Montenegro (ME)	1
Cameroon (CM)	1
Georgia (GE)	1
Malta (MT)	1
Togo (TG)	1
Belize (BZ)	1
Moldova, Republic of (MD)	1
Jersey (JE)	1
Guam (GU)	1
El Salvador (SV)	1
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the (CD)	1
Luxembourg (LU)	1

Google Book Tool Tracks Cultural Change With Words

by Dan Charles, All Things Considered, Dec. 16, 2010
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/16/132106374/google-book-tool-tracks-cultural-change-with-words

 

Google Ngram Viewer provides searchable dataset of 
books. Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/12/google-ngram-viewer-provides-searchable-dataset-of-books.html

 

New Google tool, free to public, reveals evolution of language
by Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, December 16, 2010
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16875900?nclick_check=1

 

Culturomics webpage at http://www.culturomics.org/

 

The Google Books Ngram Viewer is at 
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/

 

The Science paper is:

Michel, J.-B., Y. K. Shen, A. P. Aiden, A. Veres, M. K. Gray,
The Google Books Team, J. P.  Pickett, D. Hoiberg, D. Clancy,
P. Norvig, J. Orwant, S. Pinker, M. A. Nowak, and E. L.
Aiden, 2010, Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions
of Digitized Books. Published Online,  Science Express, Dec.
16, 2010, DOI: 10.1126/science.1199644,
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/12/15/science.1199644

 

1. I did an analysis of the word "meteorite." The frequency 
goes up and down within a restricted range between 
1880 and middle 1950s. Then, the frequency of its usage 
increases abruptly until it peaks about early 1960s. 
After this peak, it usage decreases until it hits a low about
middle 1990s. Then it usage rises again and peaks about 
2000 and drops again.

2. The phrase "impact crater has low usage until about 
the very late 1950s. Then its usage starts increasing
until about middle 1990s when its usage very abruptly
increases. Its usage peaks about 2000 to early 2000s
and starts dropping.

3. The word "Chicxulub" appears in the very early 1990s 
and its usage rises quite abruptly and peaks about 1999.
Then its usage drops during the 2000s.

Yours,

Paul H.

End of planet formation marked by giant impacts

by Dr. Emily Baldwin, Astronomy Now Online, December 10, 2010.

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1012/10impact/

Cataclysmic Collisions Brought Gold to Earth, Dec. 9, 2010‎

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/101209-asteroid-collisions-earth-gold-science-space/


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20025262-501465.html

http://sify.com/news/study-says-alien-bombardment-brought-gold-to-earth-news-international-kmknawcebdj.html

Giant asteroids could have delivered bling to early Earth Nature.com, December 9, 2010

‎http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/12/giant_asteroids_could_have_del.html

New Insights Into Formation of Earth, the Moon, and Mars Science Daily, December 10, 2010
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101209141130.htm

The paper is:
Bottke, W. F., R. J. Walker, J. M. D. Day, D. Nesvorny, and L. E. Tanton, 2010, Stochastic Late Accretion to Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Science. vol. 330, no. 6010, pp. 1527-1530.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6010/1527

A related article is:
Origin of Terrestrial Planets and-the Earth-Moon System
 http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/wisdom/extrasolar/Canup.pdf

Yours, 

Paul H.

Chiemgau Impact Hypothesis is Dead

Chiemgau Impact Hypothesis is Dead  Thursday, December 9, 2010 4:03 AM

Chiemgau Impact Hypothesis is Dead by Dr. Martin 
Rundkvist, Science Blogs, December 1, 2010
http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/12/chiemgau_impact_hypothesis_is.php

 

An earlier blog is:

Amateur Impact Hypothesis Makes It Into Major 
Archaeology Journal by Dr. Martin Rundkvist, 
Science Blogs, August 10, 2010
http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/08/amateur_impact_hypothesis_make.php

 

Yours,

Paul H.

Review of “A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event”

Review of “A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event”

Review of “A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event” 
by Jeff Medkeff and Martin Rundkvist, eSkeptic, February, 2010, 
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-02-04/#feature

 

Yours,

Paul H.

Louisiana Impact Crater 23NOV2010

Heart of Louisiana: La's meteor strike  w/ video by Dave McNamara  A research team, led by Dr. Paul V. Heinrich from LSU has found the remains of a large crater that experts believe was caused by a long-ago meteor impact ...  See  Video More about the Brushy Creek Impact Crater in  St. Helena Parish, Louisiana by Paul V. Heinrich: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18934514/Brushy-Creek-Impact-Crater-St-Helena-Parish-Louisiana http://www.research.lsu.edu/newsletter/archives/2004summer/crater.htm

The Manuel Benavides Craterwrong and Cratermania

People having been using Google Earth for a number of purposes, including the search for impact craters. Although Google Earth has been useful in the search for impact structures and craters, some people have been indulging in a cratermania in which any circular feature and even a number of noncircular features are instantly claimed to be either impact structures and craters without a single shred of either ground truthing, literature review, or hard evidence. One specific example is:

1. The Benavides Impact Structure: A large, multiple airburst, 
geo-ablative impact structure.
http://craterhunter.wordpress.com/the-planetary-scaring-of-the-younger-dryas-impact-event/the-benivides-impact-structure/

http://tiny.cc/Benavides
This feature is described as:

"The semi circular ring of The Benavides Impact Structure is 17 miles wide. Just across the border from Terlingua, Texas, and Big Bend National Park, USA. "and it is stated, "There is no volcanic vent here."

Unfortunately, recently published and very, very detailed geologic mapping demonstrates beyond any shadow of a doubt that the above statements are completely wrong. The so-called "Benavides Impact Structure" is in fact a volcanic caldera and would be more correctly called the "Benavides Craterwrong."

This detailed geologic mapping, McDowell (2010), states about the Benavides structure;

"The caldera is an unusual trap-door type with a hinge zone on the southwest and two separate collapse and eruption margins around the north and east. Its outer diameter is approximately 25 km, which is unusually large for the tuffs that erupted from it, suggestive of a shallow collapse. Inflation or tumescence prior to the eruptions modified a preexisting Laramide fold by bowing it outward toward the north and east; a 31.5 Ma granitoid was intruded into the fold axis, resulting in the formation of skarn deposits in the surrounding limestones of the fold."

References Cited;

McDowell, F. W., 2010, Geologic Map of Manuel Benavides area, 
Chihuahua, Mexico. Map and Chart no. 99. Geological Society of 
America, Boulder, Colorado.
http://rock.geosociety.org/Bookstore/default.asp?oID=0&catID=2&pID=MCH099F

Yours,

Paul H.

 Drumlins Are Glacial, Not Impact, In Origin

Dear friends,

New research concerning how drumlins form has appeared 
in the October 2010 (vol. 38 no. 10) issue of "Geology." 
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/38/10.toc

 

The significance of this research is discussed in:

1. How Drumlins Form, olelog What on Earth 
Blog, Nov. 18, 2010, http://my.opera.com/nielsol/blog/show.dml/22004962

 

2. Drumlin Field Discovery Gives Answers 
About Glaciation And Climate, redorbit
November 16, 2010, http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1951595/drumlin_field_discovery_gives_answers_about_glaciation_and_climate/index.html

 

The paper is;

Johnson, M. D., A. Schomacker, I. O. Benediktsson,
A. J. Geiger, A. Ferguson, and O. Ingolfsson, 2010, 
Active drumlin field revealed at the margin of 
Múlajökull, Iceland: A surge-type glacier. Geology.
vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 943-946, DOI: 10.1130/G31371.1
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/38/10/943

 

This refutes the claims by various catastrophists that drumlins 
were either created by Pleistocene extraterrestrial impacts or 
Noah's Flood.

An example of how drumlins are misinterpreted and misused 
as evidence of an extraterrestrial impact is discussed in "Could 
a Comet Tail Have Scarred the Earth in the Recent Past?" at 
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/206447-Could-a-Comet-Tail-Have-Scarred-the-Earth-in-the-Recent-Past-

 

Even more detailed discussion of how drumlins were created 
is discussed in a number of papers in the December (vol. 232, 
no. 3-4) issue of "Sedimentary Geology" at 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00370738

 

Best Wishes,

Paul H.