Undersea Meteor Crater Found

[Larry Dunn <majestic_cheese@yahoo.com>]

Outer space hated the dinosaurs.  From AP online (copyright
acknowledged).

                        *  *  *

Undersea Meteor Crater Found

Filed at 11:45 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Norwegian scientists have discovered a rare
undersea meteor crater in the Arctic left by a stunning collision
millions of years ago, a researcher said Monday. 

The 25-mile-wide crater was found by a research team mapping the ocean
floor 125 miles north of Norway, according to the January edition of
Gemini, a magazine published by the SINTEF research institute in the
northern city of Trondheim. 

Just seven such sub-sea craters are known to exist, compared with more
than 150 on land, the magazine said. 

``Everything would indicate that it had a great impact on life,
although not catastrophic,'' SINTEF senior geologist Atle Moerk said
in a telephone interview Monday. 

The roughly 1 1/4-mile-wide meteor was traveling about 18,600 mph when
it slammed into the Earth an estimated 150 million years ago, the
magazine said. 

The impact caused a tidal wave that stretched from Canada to Russia,
and sent a plume of hot debris into the atmosphere that darkened much
of the planet, the article said. 

Samples from the Norwegian crater in August showed quartz grains
deformed by the impact, and traces of iridium, a rare element more
often found in space than on earth. The magazine also said the crater
was unusually well preserved. 

The crater was named Mjoelnir, after the mythical hammer wielded by
the Norse god of thunder, Thor. 







==
Larry
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