[meteorite-list] Marquez Dome in Texas is Actually an Impact Crater

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jun 21 14:09:51 2004
Message-ID: <200406211809.LAA22064_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=110663&SecID=2

Marquez Dome is actually a crater hole
Associated Press
June 21, 2004

MARQUEZ -- Geologists say quiet pasture land in the Central Texas
town of Marquez holds clues to the planet's violent past.

They say the site known as the Marquez Dome was once thought to be
a salt dome by prospectors looking for oil along the Texas Gulf
coast.

However, scientists now say the site about 60 miles southeast of
Waco holds the remnants of a huge crater formed from an
asteroid's impact about 58 million years ago.

University of Houston geoscience professor Arch Reid said shallow
sea water or a marsh probably covered Marquez when it was struck
by the asteroid. He told the Waco Tribune-Herald it left a hole
about a mile deep and eight miles wide that was filled with rock
over geologic time. The dome-like uplift gradually resulted from
erosion.

Discovered in 1989, the dome has also drawn a group of University
of Tennessee students.
Received on Mon 21 Jun 2004 02:09:41 PM PDT