1. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Enigma of Cyclic Character
Sedimentary Record of Earth
Cosmic Connection to
Snowballs From Outer Space
By
Christopher George St. Clement Kendall
2. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Probability for us of Asteroid Impact USA
• Motor Vehicle Accident - 1 in 100
• Homicide - 1 in 300
• Fire - 1 in 800
• Firearms Accident - 1 in 2,500
• Electrocution - 1 in 5,000
• Aircraft Accident - 1 in 20,000
• Asteroid Impact - 1 in 25,000
• Flood - 1 in 30,000
• Tornado -- 1 in 60,000
• Venomous bite or sting - 1 in 100,000
• Fireworks accident - 1 in 1 million
• Food Poisoning - 1 in 3 million
(after
Chapman
& Morrison)
5. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Impacts cause a beat in sedimentary
record?
The stratigraphic record
divided into repeated sequences
bounded by erosional events
or unconformities.
6. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Impacts cause a beat in sedimentary
record?
• Punctuation of stratigraphic record
expressed as changes in geometric character
of sediments bounded by erosional surfaces
• Driven by changes in relative position of sea
• Some of these changes in sea level may be a
response to collisions with large fast objects
from outer space?
7. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Beat of Sea Level change in
sedimentary record?
The stratigraphic record
divided into repeated sequences
bounded by erosional events
or unconformities.
8. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
9. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
10. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Glacial/Eustatic Model – Problem
3RD ORDER GEOLOGIC PERIODS WHEN
GLACIAL/EUSTATIC SIGNALS ARE RECOGNIZED :
• Pleistocene and Late Tertiary
• Pennsylvanian and Permian
• Ordovician
• Precambrian
11. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Precession
Wobble
-
Tilt
From Plane
-
Eccentric Path of
Earth Around Sun
14. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Global 3rd Order Sequences in Mesozoic
Problem!
• None of these effects are responsible for the
3rd order global sequences in the Mesozoic
• Eustatic Model –signals of glacial events are
not recognized for Mesozoic or Early Tertiary
15. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Global 3rd Order Sequences in Cenozoic
Sequestration by Ice
• Some global eustatic events could be
responsible for 3rd order global sequences
linked to Late Tertiary & Quaternary glacial
events (30 Ma) but even these are associated
with high frequency events!
16. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
17. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
18. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
The Earth was one time like the Sun
& was molten. Now we have a thin crust
over the molten interior!!
26. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Transform Boundaries
• Two plates slide past each other
• Usually between mid-oceanic ridge segments
– Can also connect ridge and trench
– Or trench to trench
• Origin of offset of ridges
29. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Fault Stress Release Drives High
Frequency Accommodation
CLOETING STATES
• Stress builds up in continental margin in response to
compression or extension
• At 3rd order time intervals release of stress at faults causes
local transgressions
PROBLEM
• Stress release is expressed as earthquakes
• Magnitude 7 earthquakes release 1027 ergs of energy locally
• Only the signal can be detected at some distance away
30. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
31. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
• 1st 50+Ma Continental Breakup
• 2nd 1-50 Ma Oceanic ridge spreading
& Crustal cooling
• 3rd 1-5 Ma P Glacial Eustasy
P Tectonism
P Sediment Loading
• 4th .08- 1 Ma Milankovitch Cycles &
Tectonism
Order & Frequency of Stratigraphic
Sequences – Traditional Causes
32. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Sediment drives high frequency
accommodation
GALLOWAY STATES
• Variations in sediment supply driven by tectonic uplift and
continental erosion
• Uplift driven by flexural response to down dip loading of
shelf margin and plate collision
• Accommodation results from thermal subsidence and third
order flexure produced by sediment loading
PROBLEM
• No explanation for global transgressions
• Thermal subsidence & variation in sediment supply are
local
33. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
The Hypothesis!
“Now we have a chaos of theories of the most
part conflicting. Some or all or none of them
may be correct; partly or altogether. It is an area
where imagination remains largely unfettered
by the bonds of certainty.”
D.P. Geddis, 1954
From “An Analysis of the Kinsey Report on the
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Female”
34. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Stress Release at Plate Boundaries
HIGH FREQUENCY ACCOMMODATION MODEL
• Stress builds up in continental margin in response to
compression or extension
• At 3rd order time intervals release of stress at faults
causes local transgressions when bolides collide!
RESULTS
• Stress release is expressed as earthquakes
• Magnitude 7 earthquakes release 1027 ergs of energy
locally
• Signal detected all over the Earth!
36. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Extraterrestrial - High Frequency
Accommodation
• 20 km diameter Asteroids striking Earth at
velocities exceeding 30-40km/sec will
release 1032-33 ergs (106ergs times
magnitude 7 earthquakes)
• Energy of impact depresses the crust,
causing it to undulate world wide.
38. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Meteor Crater Arizona
Iron nickel meteorite struck 50,000 years ago weighing
several hundred tons at velocity of 40,000 mph &
explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT
1.2-kilometers wide (3/4 of a mile), 174- meters deep (570-feet)
39. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Frequency of Impacts
• Impact large enough to create crater size of Meteor Crater
occurs every 1000 to 2000 years somewhere on Earth
• The chances of such an impact occurring this year is 1 in
1500, an uncomfortably large probability
• The chances of being demolished by an impact are much
smaller.
– The area devastated around Meteor Crater was 800-1500 km2 -
about 1000 km2
– The surface area of Earth is 510 million km2
– So chances of being destroyed is only about 1 in 500,000.
• Probability of any one being killed by a Meteor Crater-sized
impact -- only 1 in 7.5 billion. (after Chapman & Morrison)
40. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Most Impacts are Small
• Hiroshima ‘A’ Bomb released 150 kilotons
• 10-metre diameter meteoric body has kinetic energy
of about 100 kilotons
– Detonates at altitude above 10 km
– Causes little or no damage on ground
– Alarm to witnesses as on 9 October 1997 in El Paso, Texas
• Similar events are recorded by US surveillance
satellites, one or two per month, with smaller Kiloton
sized explosions happen every 1 to 10 days
42. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Large Impacts On Earth
• 120 impact craters for past 2 billion years cataloged
• Diameters from 10’s of meters up to 200 km
CRATER RECOGNITION IS LOW
• Craters smaller than 20km easily eroded
• Asteroids tend to hit ocean
MAJOR CRATERS
• Sudbury, Ontario- shock metamorphism; & diameter of
200km identify (Grieves, 1991)
• Chicxulub, Mexico- Gravity & Magnedics identify 200km
crater; penetrated 15 km (Hidebrand et al.,1991)
• Veredfort, South Africa- 150km in diameter (Spudis 1993)
43. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Chicxulub, Mexico - Gravity & Magnetics
Identify 200 km crater - penetrated 15 km into earth
(Hidebrand et al.,1991)
Product of 10 km diameter object!
52. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Stress Release at Plate Boundaries
HIGH FREQUENCY ACCOMMODATION MODEL
• Stress builds up in continental margin in response to
compression or extension
• At 3rd order time intervals release of stress at faults
causes local transgressions when bolides collide!
RESULTS
• Stress release is expressed as earthquakes
• Magnitude 7 earthquakes release 1027 ergs of energy
locally
• Signal detected all over the Earth!
53. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Impacts Explain Global Events
• Extensive marine transgressions
• Organic rich shales
• Climatic cooling
• Major extinctions
• Tectites
• Iridium concentrations in shale
• Magnetic field reversals
55. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Potential For Collision (Shoemaker 1991)
•Over 1000 objects over 1km diameter in orbits which
cross Earth
•During next 100 million years, over 1000 impacts will
produce craters 10km diameter
•5 km diameter every 100,000 years
•10 km diameter objects will produce 200+ km
diameter craters every 4 million years
•A 20 km diameter object will collide with Earth every
3 billion years
•Between 1975 &1992, 136 explosions were detected
in upper atmosphere from extraterrestrial objects
over 1 km diameter in orbits crossing the Earth
•Rate of bombardment of Earth matches Moon
56. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Evidence of Impacts
• Numerous large impact craters occur on the Moon,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jovian Moons
• Continue to form today
– In 1178 Gervase of Canterbury believed to have observed
a contemporary impact on Moon (Clube and Napier).
– 7th November 2005 Rob Suggs (NASA) observed another
• Lunar multi-ring basins on the Moon exceed 3000km
58. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Craters form on Moon today!
On 7th November 2005
Rob Suggs of NASA
observed impact
First night testing 10-
inch telescope to
monitor space strikes
on Moon
59. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Historical Frequency of Craters
forming on Moon
Earth & Moon Form by Accretion
Cataclysmic Bombardment
Moon & Earth
65. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Craters on Moon - Orientale Basin
3 rings - Inner Rook Mts, Outer Rook Mt s, & Cordillera Mts
Diameter - 930 Km
66. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Asteroid Ida!
irregularly shaped asteroid from asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
67. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Asteroid Ida
irregularly shaped asteroid from asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
68. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Craters on Eros Asteroid
Asteroid between Mars and Earth
On Monday, 12 February 2001, the NEAR
spacecraft touched down on asteroid Eros!.
82. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Potential For Collision During Lifetime
• Win State lottery 1 in 5,200,000*
• Killed by terrorists on an overseas trip 1 in 650,000*
• Killed by lighting 1 in 600,000*
• Asteroid impact on Earth 1 in 30,000
• Killed in a plane 1 in 30,000
• Killed by American in Baltimore 1 in 4,000*
• Dying in a car 1 in 75*
Statistic compiled from *Baptist Hospital newspaper
Columbia, SC, May 94 & Economist, Sept 11-17, 93
84. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Conclusions
•"...when you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must
be the truth." Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of
the Four by Conan Doyle
85. Midlands. Astronomy Club – Collisions!
Conclusions
• Extraterrestrial hypervelocity impacts cause some (but
not all) 3rd order rapid global transgression on Haq et al
• Extraterrestrial hypervelocity impacts globally cause:
– Climatic cooling
– Organic rich shales
– Major extinction
– Tectites
– Iridium concentrations in shale
– Global enigmatic tectonic events
• Other mechanisms for 3rd order onlap cycles are local &
tectonically driven, but not global
• Stratigraphic markers for global correlation & prediction)
