CT!
que moonscape
n the days of the dinosaurs, when
what is now central Alabama lay
beneath a warm shallow sea, a cataclysm of epic proportions changed
the very fiber of the area.
About 85 million years ago a meteor
approximately the size of a large college football stadium blazed a fiery trail
through the atmosphere, hurtling at 44,640
mph into a spot about 16 miles offshore.
it left behind a 5-mile wide horseshoeshaped ring of hills where Wetumpka is
now located.
The impact of the stony projectile was
literally earth-shattering. According to Dr.
David T. King Jr., an Auburn university
professor of geology, the energy released
by the strike equaled the explosion of
about 2.3 billion tons of TnT and was
approximately 175,000 times the power of
the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima
in 1945.
King said the collision likely produced an
earthquake that would register between
8.4 and 9 on the richter scale. His research
indicates the meteor most likely struck at
a 30 to 45 degree angle from the northeast. He also speculates that shock waves,
blinding light, damage and other effects
of the impact explosion radiated outward
several hundred miles. Debris may have
been tossed as far away as the current gulf
of mexico.
in addition to the explosion on impact,
the strike likely spawned winds of about
175-miles an hour and created a 100-foot
tsunami as well as causing a cascade
of flying rocks which would have been
ejected from the developing crater bowl.
King became interested in the unique
geological formation in the 1990s, and in
1997 released a report detailing his conclusions that the ring of hills was formed by a
meteor strike.
To confirm the area as an impact crater, core drilling was conducted in June
and July 1998. S hnology (miT) revealed
the samples contained “shocked quartz,”
confirming King’s theory that a meteor
crashed in the area.
in 2002, the research team published its
results in earth and planetary Science
Letters and officially established
Wetumpka as the 157th known impact
crater on the planet.
The geographic anomalies of the terrain were noted by others before King’s
research eventually proved his hypothesis.
The first information about the site was
recorded by State geologist e.A. Smith in
August 1891; and maps prepared in the
1950s by H.D. eargle, L.C. Conant and C.W.
Drennan described the area as structurally
perturbed.
in 1971, Tuscaloosa geologist Tony
neathery, and two other geologists –
robert D. Bentley and gregory C. Lyons
– theorized that the site’s peculiarities were
the result of a meteor impact.
During June and July 2009, King utilized a
grant from nASA to conduct further core
drilling – excavating at four new sites
around the crater rim. The crater has also
been photographed via satellite. “We have
very detailed pictures of the earth’s surface, thanks to a LiDAr (lighting detection
and ranging) study,” said King.
King said he hopes to eventually receive
funding to explore other areas of the crater
using core drilling techniques.
“i would like to drill a 6,000-foot well in
the center,” he said. “That would probably
cost a million bucks.”
eventually King would like to have magnetic and seismic studies of the area conducted.
Wetumpka’s impact crater is unique
among such geological anomalies
because it is not submerged in water
or otherwise covered or eroded beyond
visibility. it is also the only authenticated
impact crater in the eastern united States.
researchers from around the globe have
visited the area to study what scientists
describe as “the best preserved marine
impact crater in the world.” in places the
ridge of hills that are the crater rim rise
as high as 300 feet above the surrounding
terrain.
members of the Wetumpka Crater
Commission have worked for more than
a dozen years toward a dream of bringing the impact crater to prominence. The
eventual goal is to construct an Alabama
impact Crater and Science Center that
would include an observatory, classrooms,
an interpretive center and more.