Hi-Diddly-O neighbor! That's proof of Noah's flood. We all know the earth is only 6000 years old! :-)
Posted on 06/01/2004 4:21:15 PM PDT by Rebelbase
CAPE CHARLES, Va. - Geologists drilling half a mile below Virginia's Eastern Shore say they have uncovered more signs of a space rock's impact 35 million years ago.
For more than two weeks, scientists drilled around the clock alongside a parking lot across the harbor from Cape Charles. They stopped at 2,700 feet.
From the depths came jumbled, mixed bits of crystalline and melted rock that can be dated, as well as marine deposits, brine and other evidence of an ancient comet or asteroid that slammed into once-shallow waters near the Delmarva Peninsula.
Cape Charles is considered Ground Zero for the resulting 56-mile-wide depression below what's now the Chesapeake Bay. The drilling project marks the first time the geologists explored the inner portion of the inverted-sombrero-shaped crater.
"We expected to see some pretty strange rocks because of the extreme pressure and temperatures that occurred" approximately 35 million years ago, said geologist Greg Gohn, who led the $180,000 project for the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites).
Over the past decade, USGS (news - web sites) and Virginia scientists have investigated indications that a 2-mile-wide brilliant ball traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour crashed off the Virginia coast, burrowing thousands of feet and depressing and fracturing the bedrock.
Billions of tons of ocean water vaporized. Millions of tons of debris spewed 30 miles high before collapsing back into the excavation. A train of giant waves inundated the land. The waves then dragged debris as they washed back into the crater, preserving it beneath a blanket of rock and sediment.
It probably took just a few minutes to create the largest crater in the United States and sixth-largest known on the planet, according to computer simulations.
The catastrophe squeezed freshwater from many of the aquifers of southeastern Virginia and filled others with briny water. Its legacy is well-known to residents who try to drill for drinkable groundwater and encounter the saltwater "wedge," pockets of brine nestled in an arc from the lower Eastern Shore to the Hampton Roads-Newport News area.
Geological research off the coast of New Jersey and in Virginia, begun in 1983, led to the crater's discovery a decade later. Drilling and further study of seismic data narrowed the location in the Chesapeake Bay.
"We're getting evidence about how hot this thing (was) and what was the energy," said USGS hydrologist David Powars, one of those credited with the crater's discovery.
More clues to the space rock's identity will come from cores taken in the drill's final 280 feet.
A $1.2 million proposal to dig 7,000 feet not far from Cape Charles is before the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, which would then assist the USGS with funding.
New and fascinating to me, too.
Thanks for locating those maps. They were what I had remembered seeing and was unable to locate tonight.
That is interesting.
I was aiming for Washington DC, but close enough for government work. I think I jumped on the trigger a bit early, but I blame that on coffee jitters.
hills of central KY
Hills are formed then the ground is uplifted by geological forces. What you see today as hills were once the floor of an ocean.
That's cool by me, I like finding the surprise fossil. I found them all over N. Texas, but I guess I never realized KY might have been under water as well.
Doesn't it suck when you sneeze as you're trying to aim?
crinoids came from the shallow ocean period about 310-350 million years ago.
The hills you you see today in KY were created when the European and American continental plates slammed into each other.
So, in a way, you could blame it on the French!
Ditto on the uplifted seafloor answer.
I've seen fossilized seashells in the rock up around 8000 ft. of elevation in the mountains east of Salt Lake City.
You were living in VA 35 million years ago? ;^)
Sacre Bleu!! Your hills, they have slammed into mine! Watch where you're steering your continent, you filthy pig!
Best place in the world to go for the fossils was the "New Cut" on the Ohio upstream of Louisville.
Before the last glaciation (of the current Ice Age) the Ohio flowed to the East. A "new cut" was made at the end of the glaciation from the Miami river to the vicinity of Louisville, and voila, a gazillion fossils.
My understanding is the state of Indiana now prohibits digging for fossils in the area since the digs had gotten so extensive they endangered the safety of roads in the region.
It's cool when you find a really good one in a limestone formation. We had a quarry nearby when I lived in Texas, and everytime they put down gravel somewhere, I'd find a ton of new fossils. Was a great way to waste time as a kid.
LOL, When did Bush know about this and what is he going to do about it?
I left as soon as the glaciers retreated.
Remember, the glaciers are known to retreat for only brief periods (geologically speaking). They will return and then the Kyoto Accords crowd are going to be in some real trouble.
Up around Jamestown, New York, in the hills, the fossil shells are so thick they form the soil. I can't say if they were freshwater or saltwater, but they are small, fairly intact, and have a primitive look to them.
Hi-Diddly-O neighbor! That's proof of Noah's flood. We all know the earth is only 6000 years old! :-)
they found Pelosis mouth?
Virginia was as well. It is interesting to find sandstone and limestone at the tops of sections of the Appalachians in Virginia.
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