[meteorite-list] Missouri Drilling Will Help Confirm 340 Million-Year Old Impact

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:06 2004
Message-ID: <200307171607.JAA17963_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.kolr10.com/Global/story.asp?S=1363737&nav=0RXJGwV8

Underground Ozarks Evidence of Meteorite
KOLR 10 (Springfield, Missouri)
July 17, 2003

In April, geologists from SMS announced they had found evidence of a
large meteorite crashing into the Ozarks 340 million years ago.

This week the Missouri Department of Transportation begun drilling in
the Weaubleau Creek area. It's using a "Failing 1500 Home-Master Drill
Rig Deluxe" which puts holes in the earth.

Normally, MoDOT uses the drill to determine if the ground is strong
enough to support a bridge, but for this project geologists are using
it to figure out what kind of impact a gigantic meteorite might have
had on the Ozarks hundreds of millions of years ago.

"The damage that was caused to the Earth at one time is the equivalent
to 87,000 megatons of energy at a central point. It basically
liquefied everything in it's path, down to a certain depth," SMS
Geologist Kevin Evans said.

No one is sure how deep the tremors went. The "Failing 1500" rig only
goes down 250 feet.

"This is exciting. This is like the prize at the bottom of the Cracker
Jacks," Evans said.

But that toy will have to wait: cutting out rock a slow process. It
takes 30 minutes just to drill 5 feet.

The good news is they've already collected some core, and Evans will
spend the next several years analyzing it.

"What we'll do is slice off rock so we can see through it... identify
the minerals and textures," he said.

The goal is to learn more about the earth's history... what's been
preserved, if there are any fossils.. they may even find some actual
meteorite fragments. Evans says the meteorite was at least a quarter
of a mile wide and had an impact site of 12 miles. MoDOT plans to
bring in a second rig and drill for at least another week.

The core will be analyzed by SMS students for years to come.
Received on Thu 17 Jul 2003 12:07:59 PM PDT