PDA

View Full Version : Will someone tell me about that crater?

Ian
Feb10-05, 09:21 AM
At the northern tip of South America there appears to be a gigantic circular 'crater' dating back millions of years that is only visible from satellite images.

How old? what is it? Its effect?
Any info please.

thanks,
Ian.
Andre
Feb10-05, 12:59 PM
Thats probably the Chicxulub crater that allegedly killed the dinosaurs. Scientists are not so sure anymore.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1056908.htm
Ian
Feb10-05, 01:23 PM
That supposed impact crater is mostly beneath the sea but also appears on land. If it were somewhere else I might accept it as an impact crater, but due to it's geographic location it simply cannot be the remnant of an impact.
Andre
Feb10-05, 02:16 PM
What's the problem? 63 million years of sedimentation and tectonics is more than enough to build complete mountains on top of it, burying it completely.
Ian
Feb14-05, 11:07 AM
Yeah thats right, 60 million years of sedimentation to cover it and 60 milliion years of tectonic motion to break it up. The crater lies on a collision boundary so tectonics should have broken it up not preserved it. It should be severely mis-shapen after all that time.
matthyaouw
Feb17-05, 11:15 AM
Yeah thats right, 60 million years of sedimentation to cover it and 60 milliion years of tectonic motion to break it up. The crater lies on a collision boundary so tectonics should have broken it up not preserved it. It should be severely mis-shapen after all that time.

Actually, from what I can see, it is quite a distance from the nearest boundary, and outside of the regions of recent tectonic deformation.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com:8100/legacy/college/levin/0470000201/chap_tutorial/ch03/images/le03_01.jpg

http://www.huttoncommentaries.com/Other/Latinia/SAm_P&A750.jpg