Cross-section through the Odessa Impact Crater (Ector County, Texas, USA) 4 : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Cross-section through the Odessa Impact Crater (Ector County, Texas, USA) 4 / James St. John
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示 2.1 |
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| 説明 | The Odessa Impact Crater formed when an iron meteorite hit the western Texas plains during the Late Pleistocene, about 64,000 years ago. The impact site is 9-10 miles southwest of the town of Odessa, Texas. The main crater is somewhat subtle as seen from the ground. A smaller, secondary crater is nearby. Fragments of Odessa Meteorite have been collected from the surrounding fields for decades.-------------------------------Info. from signage:ODESSA METEOR CRATERThe Odessa Meteor Crater was formed in prehistoric time when a great shower of nickel-iron meteorites collided with the Earth. Geologists estimate that the time of the meteor fall was [about 64,000 years ago]. The shower was composed of many thousand of individual meteorites of various sizes which fell over an area of about two square miles. The smaller meteorites, which were the most numerous, either came to rest on the earth’s surface or at the bottom of shallow impact pits within the soil. There were several very large meteoritic masses in the shower, however, and struck the earth with such enormous energy that they penetrated deeply into bedrock and shattered with explosive force, thus producing the crater. When freshly formed, the center was s funnel-shaped depression, about 500 feet in diameter and 100 feet in depth. More than 100,000 cubic yards of crushed rock was ejected from this crater by the energy released from the impacting meteoritic mass. In the ages following the impact the crater gradually accumulated sediments deposited by wind and water. The crater was eventually filled to within 6 feet of the level of the surrounding plain. It now appears as a shallow, nearly circular depression surrounded by a low, rock-buttressed rim. Meteor craters are among the rarest and most interesting of land features. Astrophysicists have observed the source of meteoritic bodies which strike our Earth originate within our Solar System probably from the Asteroid Belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter.The Cretaceous limestone, which normally lies horizontal, was tilted vertically by the blast, and is now exposed in several locations around the crater.-------------------------------Locality: Odessa Impact Structure, Ector County, western Texas, USA |
| 撮影日 | 2007-08-27 16:28:01 |
| 撮影者 | James St. John |
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