....the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11
"In 2008, a team of researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen found evidence for the ancient meteorite strike near Ullapool, Scotland.
The thickness and extent of the debris deposit the scientists found suggested the impact crater was close to the coast, but its precise location remained a mystery.
Now University of Oxford’s Dr. Ken Amor and colleagues have identified the crater location 9.3-12.3 miles west of a remote part of the Scottish coastline.
“The material excavated during a giant meteorite impact is rarely preserved on Earth, because it is rapidly eroded, so this is a really exciting discovery,” Dr. Amor said.
“It was purely by chance this one landed in an ancient rift valley where fresh sediment quickly covered the debris to preserve it.”
Using a combination of field observations, the distribution of broken rock fragments known as basement clasts and the alignment of magnetic particles, the team was able to gauge the direction the meteorite material took at several locations, and plotted the likely source of the crater.
“..... most of life on Earth was still in the oceans and there were no plants on the land,” the scientists said.
“At that time Scotland would have been quite close to the equator and in a semi-arid environment. The landscape would have looked a bit like Mars when it had water at the surface.”
SciNews
"In 2008, a team of researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen found evidence for the ancient meteorite strike near Ullapool, Scotland.
The thickness and extent of the debris deposit the scientists found suggested the impact crater was close to the coast, but its precise location remained a mystery.
Now University of Oxford’s Dr. Ken Amor and colleagues have identified the crater location 9.3-12.3 miles west of a remote part of the Scottish coastline.
“The material excavated during a giant meteorite impact is rarely preserved on Earth, because it is rapidly eroded, so this is a really exciting discovery,” Dr. Amor said.
“It was purely by chance this one landed in an ancient rift valley where fresh sediment quickly covered the debris to preserve it.”
Using a combination of field observations, the distribution of broken rock fragments known as basement clasts and the alignment of magnetic particles, the team was able to gauge the direction the meteorite material took at several locations, and plotted the likely source of the crater.
“..... most of life on Earth was still in the oceans and there were no plants on the land,” the scientists said.
“At that time Scotland would have been quite close to the equator and in a semi-arid environment. The landscape would have looked a bit like Mars when it had water at the surface.”
SciNews
