Drilling Finds Crater Beneath Va. Bay

AP via Yahoo ^ | Tue Jun 1 2004 | Staff

[Rebelbase]

I never knew this!

[Rebelbase]

ping

[Hunble]

It has been known for a long time, but this confirmation is rather interesting.

[Clara Lou]

Fascinating stuff!

[Socratic]

Thanks for the post. I love science!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Do you think Bill Clinton knows about the "jumbled, mixed bits of crystalline and melted rock that can be dated"?

[No Blue States]

I did not know one hit there either, interesting story.

[Poohbah]

I'm waiting for Ted Kennedy to blame the asteroid impact on neo-conservatives and Halliburton...

[1ofmanyfree]

There are also huge natural gas deposits under the Continental shelf offshore from Atlantic City NJ to Fla.
Congress stopped exploration prior to drilling back in 1983. I know because I was one of the many drillers who had to be certified with the USGS for surface and sub-sea well control techniques prior to the industry being allowed to develop this field. Needless to say, I remember hearing a small blurb shortly thereafter stating Congress had placed the area "off limits" to offshore drilling. Guess it was the NIMBY syndrome. Let 'em produce it out West and pipe it to us. Then NE congressmen can gripe about the high cost. As I recall it was a who's who of Eastern liberals who killed this important clean energy source. Anyone else recall this event or know of any records of the vote? I wonder. Hmmm. Kerry again?

[Thud]

ping, and check out both:

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cbaymenu.html

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cbayint.html

I wonder if this eventhad anything to do with the Carolina Bays.

[concentric circles]

Check this out:

The Chesapeake Bay Bolide: Modern Consequences of an Ancient Cataclysm - U.S. Geological Survey - Coastal and Marine Geology - Woods Hole Field Center

During the late Eocene, the formerly quiescent geological regime of the Virginia Coastal Plain was dramatically transformed when a bolide struck in the vicinity of the Delmarva Peninsula, and produced the following principal consequences:

- The bolide carved a roughly circular crater twice the size of the state of Rhode Island (~6400 km2), and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (1.3 km deep).
- The excavation truncated all existing ground water aquifers in the impact area by gouging ~4300 km3 of rock from the upper lithosphere, including Proterozoic and Paleozoic crystalline basement rocks and Middle Jurassic to upper Eocene sedimentary rocks.
- A structural and topographic low formed over the crater.
- The impact crater may have predetermined the present-day location of Chesapeake Bay.
- A porous breccia lens, 600-1200 m thick, replaced local aquifers, resulting in ground water ~1.5 times saltier than normal sea water.
- Long-term differential compaction and subsidence of the breccia lens spawned extensive fault systems in the area, which are potential hazards for local population centers in the Chesapeake Bay area.

[MonroeDNA]

el bumpo!!!

I love this stuff...

[Rebelbase]

Thanks. Nice maps.

[null and void]

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,"

And a third of the waters were made bitter...

[VadeRetro]

First I heard of this discovery, also, although I was living in Virginia at the time and for years afterward.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[sionnsar]

Bush's fault.

[sionnsar]

But actually, quite interesting. Thanks!

[TheLurkerX]

I didn't either. My friend and I were talking about the fossils we find in his creek gravel in the hills of central KY. They're old, old looking sea shells, and other marine fossils that look like they've been embedded for forever and a day. We were hypothesizing that they were maybe brought there by tsunami or something, but this would make sense.

Does anyone know if they have an estimate for how far inland the waves came?

[Rebelbase]

"Bush's fault"

fault...hahaha (geologist humor)