Lightning‐induced Shock Lamellae and Melting in Rocks 29SEP2017

 Lightning‐induced Shock Lamellae and Melting in Rocks

Chen, J., Elmi, C., Goldsby, D. and Gieré, R., 2017. Generation

of shock lamellae and melting in rocks by lightning‐induced

shock waves and electrical heating. Geophysical Research

Letters. First published: 9 September 2017

DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073843

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073843/full

Melosh, H.J., Impact Geologists, Beware!. Commentary

Geophysical Research Letters. First published: 9 September

DOI: 10.1002/2017GL074840

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074840/full

Yours,

Paul H.

Exploration of Large Peak-Ring Impact Craters - Chicxulub 29SEP2017

 Exploration of Large Peak-Ring Impact Craters - Chicxulub

Kring, David A., Philippe Claeys, Sean P.S. Gulick,

Joanna V. Morgan and Gareth S. Collins, 2017,

Chicxulub and the Exploration of Large Peak-Ring

Impact Craters through Scientific Drilling

GSA Today Volume 27, Number 10, pp. 4-8.

http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/science/G352A/article.htm

http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/science/G352A/GSATG352A.pdf

http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/10/pdf/i1052-5173-27-10.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Ancient Meteorite Impact Produced Highest Natural Temperature Ever On Earth 27SEP2017

 Ancient Meteorite Impact Produced Highest Natural Temperature Ever On Earth

Ancient Meteorite Impact Produced Highest Natural

Temperature Ever On Earth, Extreme Tech, Sept. 18, 2017

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/255984-ancient-meteorite-impact-produced-highest-natural-temperature-ever-earth

Meteorite Impact Caused the Highest Temperature

ever Recorded on Earth's Surface, Phys.Org Sept 18, 2017

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-meteorite-impact-highest-temperature-earth.html

The paper is:

Nicholas E. Timms, Timmons M. Erickson, Michael R. Zanetti,

Mark A. Pearce, Cyril Cayron, Aaron J. Cavosie, Steven M. Reddy,

Axel Wittmann, and Paul K. Carpenter, 2017, Cubic zirconia in

>2370 °C impact melt records Earth's hottest crust. Earth and

Planetary Science Letters Volume 477, Pages 52-58

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X1730451X

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/230363

Yours,

Paul H.

Did Asteroid Impacts Start Plate Tectonics? 27SEP2017

 Did Asteroid Impacts Start Plate Tectonics?

Large meteorite impacts drove plate-tectonic processes

on the early Earth, PhysOrg, September 26, 2017

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-large-meteorite-impacts-drove-plate-tectonic.html

Did meteorites create the Earth’s tectonic plates?

Cosmos, September 26, 2017

https://cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/did-meteorites-create-the-earth-s-tectonic-plates

The paper is:

O’Neill, C.,  Marchi, S., Zhang, S., and Bottke, W., 2017.

Impact-driven subduction on the Hadean Earth

Nature Geoscience (2017) doi:10.1038/ngeo3029

Received 12 December 2016 Accepted 22 August 2017

Published online 25 September 2017

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo3029.html?foxtrotcallback=true

Another article is:

Australian rocks suggest early Earth may not have

had plate tectonics, Cosmos, September 28, 2017

https://cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/tremors-shake-tectonic-plate-theory

Plate Tectonics May Have Begun a Billion Years

After Earth's Birth, Live Science, September 21, 2017

https://www.livescience.com/60478-plate-tectonics-gets-new-age.html

The paper is:

Johnson, T.E., Brown, M., Gardiner, N.J., Kirkland, C.L.

and Smithies, R.H., 2017. Earth’s first stable

continents did not form by subduction. Nature,

543(7644), pp.239-242.

https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v543/n7644/abs/nature21383.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Scientists Find Fossilised Cosmic Dust in White Cliffs of Dover 11SEP2017

 Scientists Find Fossilised Cosmic Dust in White Cliffs of Dover

Scientists find fossilised cosmic dust in white cliffs of Dover
by Colin Smith, PhysOrg, September 7, 2017
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_7-9-2017-10-59-59
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-scientists-fossilised-cosmic-white-cliffs.html

Martin D. Suttle and Matthew J. Genge, 2017, Diagenetically
altered fossil micrometeorites suggest cosmic dust is common
the geological record, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Volume 476, Pages 132-142 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.07.0
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X17304399
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017E%26PSL.476..132S

Martin D. Suttle and Matthew J. Genge, 2017, The Diagenesis
and Replacement of Cosmic Dust in the Geological Record [#6010]
80th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society 2017 (LPI
Contrib. No. 1987)
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2017/pdf/6010.pdf
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2017/pdf/sess104.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

OT: World’s Most Accurate Hurricane Models 09SEP2017

 OT: World’s Most Accurate Hurricane Models

This is off topic but should be useful and of interest

given current events.

Here’s what the world’s most accurate weather model

predicts for Irma. A potentially catastrophic hurricane

will approach southern Florida this weekend.

Eric Berger, Ars Technica , September 6, 2017

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/heres-what-the-worlds-most-accurate-weather-model-predicts-for-irma/

Please, please stop sharing spaghetti plots of hurricane

models All forecast models are not created equal.

Eric Berger, Ars Technica , September 6, 2017

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/please-please-stop-sharing-spaghetti-plots-of-hurricane-models/

Yours,

Paul H.

Moldavites: Natural Or Fake? 30AUG2017

 Moldavites: Natural Or Fake?

In a previous post, Dirk Ross wrote:

"Another note on faked impactites -

India is now producing faceted fake

moldavite."

An appropriate article is:

Moldavites: Natural Or Fake? by Jaroslav Hyršl

Gem and Geminology, Spring 2015, Vol. 51,

no. 1, pp. 103-104.

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2015-gemnews-moldavites-natural-fake

Yours,

Paul H.

Blueprint for a Global Fireball Observatory 26AUG2017

 Blueprint for a Global Fireball Observatory

Here's the blueprint for a global fireball observatory

– and why we need one by Luke Daly, Gareth Collins

and Martin Suttle, The Conversation, August 23, 2017

http://theconversation.com/heres-the-blueprint-for-a-global-fireball-observatory-and-why-we-need-one-82798

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-blueprint-global-fireball-observatory.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Citizen Scientists To Study Solar Eclipse 2017 19AUG2017

 Citizen Scientists To Study Solar Eclipse 2017

Make history during the solar eclipse as a citizen scientist

by Anna Kusmer, KQED  August 16, 2017

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/make-history-solar-eclipse-citizen-scientist/

Solar Eclipse 2017: Life Respond

https://www.calacademy.org/citizen-science/solar-eclipse-2017

NASA Invites You to Become a Citizen Scientist During

US Total Solar Eclipse, NASA, July 20, 2017

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-invites-you-to-become-a-citizen-scientist-during-us-total-solar-eclipse

Citizen Scientists Gear Up for Eclipse, Voice of America

https://www.voanews.com/a/citizen-scientists-gear-up-for-eclipse/3990715.html

Citizen scientists will take to the field for eclipse

KGMI News, August 18, 2017

http://kgmi.com/news/030030-citizen-scientists-will-take-to-the-field-for-eclipse/

Citizen Scientists Join Forces To Document Eclipse

by Tom Banse, Northwest News Network, August 15, 2017

http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/08/15/eclipse-citizen-scientists

NASA taps citizen scientists to help study eclipse by Brooks Hays

Washington (UPI), Space Daily, August 17, 2017

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_taps_citizen_scientists_to_help_study_eclipse_999.html

An unrelated  article:

Will The Eclipse Make Crops And Animals Flip Out? Scientists Ask (Really)

Kristofor Husted, the salt, NPR, August 17, 2017

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/17/543741919/will-the-eclipse-make-crops-and-animals-flip-out-scientists-ask-really

Yours,

Paul H.

Periodicity in Impact Cratering ? Part 2 15AUG2017

 Periodicity in Impact Cratering ? Part 2

Hi,

Yesterday, I posted the link to apaper that argued
against there being a periodicity in Phanerozoic
impact cratering.

On the other side of the argument, I found some
papers that argued for a periodicity in Phanerozoic
impact cratering. They include:

Rampino, M.R., and K. Caldeira, 2017: Correlation of the
largest craters, stratigraphic impact signatures, and
extinction events over the past 250 Myr. Geosci.
Frontiers, in press, doi:10.1016/j.gsf.2017.03.002.
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ra08800k.html
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/authors/mrampino.html

Rampino, M.R., and K. Caldeira, 2015: Periodic impact
cratering and extinction events over the last 260
million years. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 454, no. 4,
3480-3484, doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2088.
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ra04800g.html https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/authors/mrampino.html

Prokoph, A., M.R. Rampino, and H. El Bilali, 2004: Periodic
components in the diversity of calcareous plankton and
geological events over the past 230 Myr. Palaeogeogr.
Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 207, 105-125,
doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.02.004. (Has PDF file.)
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/pr08200o.html
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/authors/mrampino.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Is there a resolvable periodicity in impact cratering record ? 14AUG2017

 Is there a resolvable periodicity in impact cratering record ?

Could asteroids bombard the Earth to cause a mass extinction in ten

million years?

Asteroids have hit Earth throughout its history, but there’s no way to

know when

the next big one is likely. Sanna Alwmark, Lund University, Cosmos,

Agust 14, 2017

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/could-asteroids-bombard-the-earth-to-cause-a-mass-extinction-in-ten-million-years

The paper is:

Matthias M. M. Meier  and Sanna Holm-Alwmark, 2017, A tale of clusters: no

resolvable periodicity in the terrestrial impact cratering record.

Monthly Notices

  of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 467, Issue 3, 1 June 2017,

Pages 2545–2551, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx211

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/mnras/stx211

Yours,

Paul H.

Asteroid the size of a house set for near miss with Earth 14AUG2017

 Asteroid the size of a house set for near miss with Earth

Big asteroid to sweep close September

By Eddie Irizarry in Astronomy Essentials,  August 13, 2017

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-1981-et3-3122-florence-pass-earth-2017-binoculars

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news198.html

"Asteroid 3122 Florence is the biggest near-Earth

object to pass this close since this category of objects

was discovered over a century ago."

Close encounter: asteroid the size of a house set for

near miss with Earth Space rock 2012 TC4 expected

to zoom by harmlessly, coming within 27,300 miles –

an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon

The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, August 10, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/11/close-encounter-asteroid-2012-tc4-size-of-a-house-near-miss-with-earth

Yours,

Paul H.

More Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis Papers 09AUG2017

 More Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis Papers

The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis debate

continues with papers that are published both

supporting and disputing it. The debate is a binary

one with one side either denying or supporting

an extreme event  capable of causing extinction

and climatic change. The ambiguous and

inconsistent nature of the hypothesized impact

signals might be used to argue for a third possibility.

This possibility is that the consequence of either

a rather minor extraterrestrial event or set of

rather minor extraterrestrial events have been

grossly overinterpreted and exaggerated  as

being larger than they were because by random

coincidence they occurred at the same time as a

major paleoclimatic change.

Some of the recent papers are:

Huber, R., Darga, R. and Lauterbach, H., 2017,

April. Pseudoimpactites in anthropocenically

overprinted quaternary sediments. In EGU

General Assembly Conference Abstracts

Vol. 19, p. 16545

http://www.rimbao.de/egu2017/Poster_EGU_2017_Pseudoimpaktites.pdf

Israde-Alcántara, I., Domínguez-Vázquez, G.,

Gonzalez, S., Bischoff, J., West, A. and Huddart,

D., 2017. Five Younger Dryas Black Mats in

Mexico and their stratigraphic and

paleoenvironmental context. Journal of

Paleolimnology, pp. 1-21.

Mahaney, W.C., Somelar, P., West, A., Krinsley,

D., Allen, C.C., Pentlavalli, P., Young, J.M., Dohm,

J.M., LeCompte, M., Kelleher, B. and Jordan,

S.F., 2017. Evidence for cosmic airburst in the

Western Alps archived in Late Glacial paleosols.

Quaternary International, 438, pp. 68-80.

Moore, C.R., West, A., LeCompte, M.A., Brooks,

M.J., Daniel Jr, I.R., Goodyear, A.C., Ferguson, T.A.,

Ivester, A.H., Feathers, J.K., Kennett, J.P. and

Tankersley, K.B., 2017. Widespread platinum

anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas

onset in North American sedimentary sequences.

Scientific Reports, 7, article 44031.

Roperch, P., Gattacceca, J., Valenzuela, M.,

Devouard, B., Lorand, J.P., Arriagada, C., Rochette,

P., Latorre, C. and Beck, P., 2017. Surface

vitrification caused by natural fires in Late

Pleistocene wetlands of the Atacama Desert.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 469, pp. 15-26.

Seo, J., Han, C., Steffensen, J.P., Hong, S. and

Sharma, M., 2017, March. Osmium Isotopes at the

Onset of Younger Dryas Using the GRIP Ice Core.

In Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Vol. 48, abstract 3005.

Scott, A.C., Hardiman, M., Pinter, N., Anderson,

R.S., Daulton, T.L., Ejarque, A., Finch, P. and

Carter - champion, A., 2017. Interpreting

palaeofire evidence from fluvial sediments: a

case study from Santa Rosa Island, California,

with implications for the Younger Dryas Impact

Hypothesis. Journal of Quaternary Science,

32(1), pp. 35-47.

Schumann, R.R., Pigati, J.S. and McGeehin, J.P.,

2016. Fluvial system response to late Pleistocene-

Holocene sea-level change on Santa Rosa Island,

Channel Islands National Park, California.

Geomorphology, 268, pp. 322-340.

(Comment) - Pinter, N., Hardiman, M., Scott, A.C.

and Anderson, R.S., 2017. Discussion of “Fluvial

system response to late Pleistocene-Holocene

sea-level change on Santa Rosa Island, Channel

Islands National Park, California”(Schumann et

al., 2016. Geomorphology, 268: 322–340).

Geomorphology.

(Reply) - Schumann, R.R. and Pigati, J.S., 2017.

Reply to the discussion of Pinter et al. on ‘Fluvial

system response to late Pleistocene-Holocene

sea-level change on Santa Rosa Island, Channel

Islands National Park, California’ by Schumann

et al.(2016). Geomorphology.

Zamora, A., 2017. A model for the geomorphology

of the Carolina Bays. Geomorphology, 282, pp. 209-216.

As usual, the “impact cratering bandwagon” that

Reimold  (1997) talks about is alive and well as

part of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

discussion. This is seen in the number of imaginary

impact craters and structures that have been

offered as evidence of this event and an earlier

Pleistocene hypothesized impact event.

The latest of these imaginary craters is discussed in:

Burchard, H.G., 2017. Younger Dryas Comet

12,900 BP. Open Journal of Geology, 7(02), p.193.

(Note:, the “Open Journal of Geology is published

by “Scientific Research Publishing.” Go see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Research_Publishing

Their evidence also includes a few real pre-Pleistocene

craters and structures.

Also, authors and podcasters of fringe science

in their zeal to find evidence for a catastrophic

Younger Dryas impact event repeatedly have

mistakenly and incorrectly presumed that events

associated with the Missoula Floods and various

meltwater events and pulses were

contemporaneous with the start of the Younger

Dryas. Some blatant errors are repeatedly made

despite an abundant data that these events are

quite obviously not contemporaneous.

One of the more bizarre of these ill-informed and

unsupported interpretations is the claim that

the Palouse Loess consists of some type of

Younger Dryas Impact ejecta-like deposit.

References cited:

Reimold, W.U., 2007. The impact crater bandwagon

(some problems with the terrestrial impact cratering

record). Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 42(9),

pp. 1467-1472.

Yours,

Paul H.