[meteorite-list] Hilly billy vs flat land jokes-glacial

From: Elton Jones <jonee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon May 8 01:10:20 2006
Message-ID: <445ED2B6.7000105_at_epix.net>

Gary K. Foote wrote:

>I've had the same thoughts. Living in the mountains of NH I've thought there must be meteorites around here deposited by the past ice shield. They would be in the low lying areas more likely than the peaks and sloped sides of the mountains. JMHO
>
>Gary
>
MHO is that any non-iron meteorite would not have survived on the surface.
The ice sheet most recent was 500-1200 ft thick over New England up
towards the end, so those meteorites falling onto the ice would have not
likely have reached the "ground" for several thousand years. Any
concentrating mechanism will likely also concentrate other rocks as
well. So you explore Eskers, Moraines, Kames, Drumlins and talus /scree
piles

If you are talking transported meteorites then you would be looking
within moraines and or eskers in adjacent Massachusetts. The granite
bedrock of the area was scoured. The soil there was reconstituted in
the past 10,000?years.

For perspective, meteorites which fell over present day New Hampshire:
over 13,000 ybp would be in Martha's Vineyard as that lobe moved
southeastwardly, between 13,000 and 8,000 ybp might be in Mass. Those
under 8000 ybp might be found within recessive or lateral moraines.
Otherwise those that were in transit by the ice would have settled to
the surface where the thaw freeze cycle would have turned them into
dust...er loess or drift.

If meteorites fell on a glacial lake then there might be a "kame"
deposit that is worth going through if it is being excavated. A kame is
the inverted bottom of a summer lake that existed on the ice sheet and
the sediments are loosely solidified. They are small hills( today which
are frequently excavated for fill dirt. If the meteorite fell to ground
ahead of seasonal ice advances directly onto the loess /outwash plane
could have been preserved in situ during subsequent ice advances. This
would be within a drumlin: similar in description to a kame but of a
different origin.

That said, yes the low areas for ancient falls, and anything after the
ice sheet is going to behave like any other dislodged rock. Look
somewhere within the talus pile at the base of the slope. However, the
old adage is you find them where you find them.

Trivia:If memory serves me, Nininger explored a possible fall in Maine
within a bog/kettle lake. He found disturbed ground , debris splashed
up onto tree bark and, broken limbs indicating something fell at a low
angle and skipped along horizontally under the bank. After chasing a
hole around 30 ft under the bank he ran out of pipe(?) and nothing was
ever found to explain this splash.

Total Trivia: South of Port Jervis/Milford on the PA/NJ/NY state line
off I84 is a prominent escarpment I walk sections of hunting for fossils
and meteorites and what ever else falls from the sky. I walk the base
of the fault there looking for fossils dislodges from the face of the
400 ft exposure. When I first started, I noticed mini-slide trails from
top to bottom and noticed at the end of each slide was a skeleton:
turtles, deer, coyote, etc. I believe meteorites striking the face
would behave in similar fashion.

Elton
Received on Mon 08 May 2006 01:10:14 AM PDT