Legacy 1cptnotesize

“Legacy of Impact on Earth” is an effort to help others see the evidence I see for a significant history of major impacts on the Earth. I’m W. R. Barnhart, and I
would like to lead you to a little better understanding of the lineations that impactor’s left on Earth, and the evidence for a major bombardment of our planet in
the not too distant past.
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All of the rocky bodies in the Solar System show an extensive history of impacts based on the cratering seen on their surface. Mercury was considered the dead
planet geologically, but the more detail we can see….
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…the more craters can be seen scattered over the surface.
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Venus is replete with generally round shapes
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The greater the detail, numerous smaller craters become visible.
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Mars, the red planet. Several larger craters are well recognized scattered over the surface, but can you pick out the straight lineaments?? 1980 Viking Orbiter
Mars
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In fact it was observation of the Moon that caused Galileo to first coin the name “crater” for the extremely round ”hollows” he saw there.
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More recent observation of Venus and Mars have also shown an extensive history of impacts judging from the round “craters” we see there
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If we can see all of these craters on these other rocky bodies, why can’t we see them on the Earth?? One of the excuses given is the large part of our planet
covered by water. But, with Google Earth, this is no longer a problem. This is the Eastern Pacific; if you look closely, maybe you can just make out some linear
patterns running east and west through the blue ocean. While these aren’t circular craters, maybe they can give us clues.
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Here are some of the more visible lines/ linears. Linear patterns are something we can see all over our globe, and we will refer to them as “lineaments.”
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Here is the same area after converted to black and white and having the contrast raised. We can see those same linears so much clearer, and additionally the
myriad of diagonal linears going every which way. Of course the question arises, “Where did they come from?? What is their meaning?” Plate Tectonics has
explanations for a few of these lines, but by no means for all of them. S.P. Gay, in an address to the American Associationof Petroleum Geologist in 2012 said, “To
not attempt to understand lineaments is to ignore one of the most common and basic features in geology.” My goal here is to help you start to see lineaments,
and hopefully as we see more of them the patterns will emerge and we can start to understand where they came from.
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This is a very different kind of map of the exact same portion of our globe. It is a map put out by Scripp’s Institute of Oceanography of differences in gravity
reading over the entire surface of the globe, taken repeatedly by satellite Altimetry. Originally referred to as “Marine Gravity Anomaly”, it downloads as Global
Gravity Anomaly, as an overlay to Google Earth. The URL for obtaining it in the sibebar. Global Gravity Anomaly is a mapping not of surface topography, but
gravity readings that are believed to be determined by topography, plus lithology/ general rock density and crustal thickness. On gravity maps, blue represents
lower gravity readings and red higher readings. Notice while the myriad of diagonal lines largely vanish, yet, the east west lines become very defined. We will
notice one more thing, details do not generally show up very well on Gravity maps. Actually, the detail possible in Google Earth Landsat images is pretty
remarkable. We will look at this again later. Be aware, I don’t believe any source for these linears can be found that explains them as well as impacts. But, the
basic problem for many people is seeing them in the first place.
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In seeing lines, we are dealing with a science called “Spatial Perception”. Is there a pattern in the words on the screen?? Is it random or planned?? Does there
seem to be a purpose to it?? Can you identify that possible purpose?? Just because you do not know why it is there, does not mean we should ignore that a
pattern is there.. Because you can not yet answer the final question does not mean that we can ignore the basic questions. Any non random pattern reflects
some cause or purpose.
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Look at this small white area. There are two short lines or linears like we might see on a map, Look closely, can you see a pattern in them??
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If we add this one, does it help?
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How about a little more information. Maybe now we are starting to see a pattern. Maybe the top three are a line. But, then what about the two towards the left
bottom. Sometimes we can not see a pattern because our field of view is not large enough.
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Sometimes just a little more information will give a much clearer idea of the pattern, if there is any… We are starting to see three lines. Maybe this is a triangle.
But, then we must ask the question, is that the entire pattern?
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But, sometimes it takes a whole lot of additional information before we can apply Spatial Perception with confidence.
But, just because we can see a pattern, the importance is not in what we can see. The importance is in the purpose of the pattern.
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Spatial Perception allows us to mentally fill in and complete patterns. There may be multiple solutions, and we may have to follow each one through to its logical
end to test whether it is likely or not. Using Spatial Perception we interpret the lineaments into the pattern we think most likely, and give that interpretation to
others.
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This is my interpretation of this pattern, colored to make it more visible. Seeing a nonrandom pattern gives us assurance that a purpose does exist. We may not
understand the purpose. We may have all kinds of questions about this figure. Is there a white triangle in the pattern?? Is there a black triangle?? Are there
three black circles or are they “Packman” figures?? If we do not admit to the white triangle, then the black triangle and black circles can not exist, and we are
looking at 6 repetitive, but strange geometric shapes. They would still not be random. There is repetition of elements in a consistent pattern. There is a type of
radial symmetry at three places which gives us repeated elements. And, there are parallel elements that show a common purpose exclusive to this arrangement.
All of these are interpretations about the pattern, but first we need to determine that it exist in the sketchy linears we started with.
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All of those questions we might ask will require opinions, but the interpretation of the original linears as any kind of nonrandom pattern point to a purpose that
provides meaningful information. What we make of that information is up to us.
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What I am interested in here, is how do we get from just a couple small linears to a meaningful image. That is what this process is all about.
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How do we get there??? Looking for 1) Repeated Elements 2) Regular occurrences, and 3) Recognized Purpose. We will refer to these as the 3 “R’s” of
recognizing lineaments, whether circular or straight.
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Only one consideration remains. We will refer to it as “Partial Occlusion,” recognizing an Inferred Pattern when only a portion is visible. Or another way of saying
it, “HOW MUCH INFORMATION IS ENOUGH??”
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Let’s imagine, we are out walking and we look up to see some carved rocks through the trees. If we know we are in the vicinity of Mount Rushmore, we might
assume the purpose behind these carved rocks are portraits of four presidents. But, if we are somewhere else, it might be Crazy Horse, Stone Mountain, the
Sphinx, or something else. “How much is enough??” refers to how much must we see and understand to recognize a patterns. It may totally depend on how
much additional information we have about what to expect, but we need to always realize, we will seldom recognize “what we do not expect”.
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Working with Partial Occlusion is an everyday problem which we generally handle with little or no additional thought. The black and white lines partly obscure the
triangle, but no one looking at it doubts it is a complete triangle that is represented When we can apply that to linears, we will see much more of the evidence
they supply us.
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The southern half of Africa has a shape we all recognize. But…..
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Can you pick out the continent shape in this Gravity map??? Flip back and forth between the pictures until you can see it.
Can you pick out a near circle of red to yellow in that southern Africa region? Let’s focus on that circular area.
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I call it the Mabule Circle, named for a small town near its center. It is seen here in Free Air Gravity Anomaly map published by BGI, France. Their URL is on the
sidebar. You may also notice the name Vredefort just below the word Mabule. The Vredefort Crater is located within the Mabule Circle. Notice the gap in the red
portion of the circle at the top. There is partial occlusion at that point. It shows something has interfered with the expression in that area and not that this isn’t a
complete expression.
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Here it is with a much heavier line that might help you see the Mabule. When I am locating craters/ circles, I prefer a lighter line, as my eye is drawn to the
heavier line, and I do not feel as able to objectively evaluate its circularity.
Now that we have a circle located, let’s look at it in a terrane map
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The arc does correspond to many mountain ridges, gullies, rivers, and other terrane forms lying along the circle or concentric to it. Take your time. Examine the
circle carefully. You will only start to see these circles as you take the time to train your eyes. Remember, concentric is one of the three “R’s”, “Regularity.” See
the Vredefort Crater here near the center of the Mabule…………
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The Vredefort is a recognized crater, yet the clearest circular lineament I can find around the recognized center is this white ring that is considerably larger than
the accepted red ring. Maybe the original crater rim for the Vredefort was much larger than is recognized from the sedimentary deposits left today. If it was
formed when the surface deposits were probably much deeper, then the Original Crater Rim might be much larger in the higher deposits, or there may be
something else going on that we have not yet considered.
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This is the Complete Bouguer Gravity Anomaly map for southern Africa. Bouguer is the gravity map form that is considered to be the most reflective of lithologic
differences below the surface. While there are some of the indicators for the Mabule Crater, there is not near as much as we saw in Free Air or Terrane. That
may mean the Mabule Crater has much more of a terrane expression. Besides the Vredefort, in red, there are 3 additional circles drawn in yellow, These all have
strong indication in patterns of differences in the blue. All 4 of these smaller craters would have much greater differences in Lithology which the Bouguer map
reflects. There are other circles here. Can you see them?? The next image will show some additional circles. As each of these different maps show different
things, this is a strong reminder that we need to look for circular lineaments in any map we can see them in, as they find expression in different forms under
different conditions.
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Check out the orange circles. Flip back and forth, can you see them now??
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We need to get some terminology down. This is the first event after the impactor strikes. We will call it the “Crowning Event” for obvious reasons.
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This is the “Jetting Event”. Note it starts even before the Crowning Event has completed. Note also, while the pressure wave continues outwards after the
Crowning event has started, at the TOP of the Crowning Event, the Pressure Wave has lost its original battle with the surface, and the rim is starting to form.
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Jetting ejecta is returning, Note the interaction between waves is starting to form. In this case, we have a RETURNING wave from the Crowning Event and 4
reflected waves off of the side walls.
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As the OCR is starting to form, actually slightly inside the location of the maximum Crowning event, there is significant turbulence between the returning and
reflected waves. While I am certain this turbulence is not restricted to inside the OCR, it is certainly most pronounced there in the returning ejecta.
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The primary pattern left are concentric rings inside of the OCR. With waves bouncing back and forth.
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Putting this together with the most accepted information on impacts, I have come up with this basic explanation of what takes place when an impactor hits the
Earth. Even before the impactor hits the Earth, a shock wave has proceeded it and contacted the Earth. As the impactor strikes the surface that shockwave is
driven deep into the planet and (2) reflected back into the impactor where when it reaches the back wall causes the impactor, before it has penetrated more than
a diameter or two, into the surface, to vaporize and the wave is reflected into the Earth as a rarefaction wave that follows the shock wave. The rarefaction or
release wave is different in that it is adiabatic in nature. Adiabatic means the energy the shockwave puts into the Earth, a large portion of it is immediately drawn
back out by the Release Wave.
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A mathematical simulation that was run a few years back, the reference is there. This image is visualizing the energy distribution at step 3 in the previous slide.
The Shock wave of high pressure, and the release wave of low pressure are continuing to chase each other, and 300 km depth is well into the liquid mantle
everywhere on our globe. If we examine this image in detail with a drawing we may recognize more detail.
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(A) Is the High Pressure/ Shock Wave and (B) is the low pressure/ Rarefaction/ Release Wave. Notice how those high and low reading alternate all over the wave
expression, especially in the surface at (C). The surface crater would be the ridge to the left of (C). These hogh and low expression outward from (C) is what is
going to produce the concentric expression on the surface of the Earth and around the globe. (Also note, the ejecta refilled the void inside the protruding ridge
and would prevent it from collapsing in on itself, as this construction might first suggest would happen.) If we take a cross section through the shock and release
wave portion…….
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We would get a cross section of energy expression that looks something like this where time proceeds from left to right and energy from high to low. The energy
in the shock wave rises rapidly and drops rapidly while the consumption or energy in the release wave proceeds somewhat more slowly, does not drop quite as
far, and takes some longer to return to normal. The energy removed in the Release Wave would be approximetely equal to that put in by the Shock Wave, only
expressed in a slightly different pattern.
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Because the expression of these waves is repeated over and over, in effect, we are getting a continuous repetition of the wave.
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In the globe this means the expression of the shock wave that formed the crater rim is repeated at regular intervals as a boundary layer interaction producing
concentric rings around the point of impact and Original Crater Rim. Can we see an example????
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The Pacific Fracture Zones are possibly the most spectacular example of lineaments on our globe. These are the lines we saw going across the Pacific Ocean back
at the start of this session. BUT, it is not all of those lines. Not all lines that first look concentric, when examined in detail, are concentric. The blue arrows
indicate sections I do believe are parallel/ concentric. BUT, in this picture alone, I can see over 20 different sets of concentric lines, and I have not found the
centers for many of them. Just because we have not completely gotten them figured out……..
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we do need to be aware that they exist. And, if you view more of these Power Points, you will see much more of what they do. I will refer to them as CGRS,
Concentric Global Ring Structures. The most important thing is they can be traced in both directions clear around the globe. And, they are the expression of the
Shock and Release Waves.
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Many of the Pacific CGRS have been much studied under various names as Fractures Zones. One of those Fracture Zones is the Clarion FZ. Using ship board
Bathymetry, to determine topography, the solid red line, and Free Air Gravitational Anomaly, in the dotted green line. While they do show good correlation, the
red line precedes the green line and they do show some variation. This suggest the Free Gravity Anomaly line reflects not only topography but also lithology. The
high points are not only high elevation, but also denser lithology, and the low points also have low density as well as elevation.
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Notice the similarity of shape in the Clarion lines and the diagram of the wave form I am using.
We might expect differences in lithology to be large in this area where the differences in elevation are also large, but smaller in other areas where the elevation
and lithology differences are smaller. The expression of the Shock and Release Waves change the lithology of rings, producing denser and less dense rock as well
as topographic differences probably related to erosion.
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For study, I have assigned numbers to these CGRS. Number 8 is just north of the big island of Hawaii. Number 7 is interesting, because it goes directly….
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….. onto the continent at Los Angeles, we can see many concentric expression of it in the topography linears running east and west.
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If we look at that same Line 7 at four different points around the globe. All four of these images are at the same scale, Can you see similarities between the linear
distributions. These CGRS can be traced all the way around the globe.
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However, the Pacific CGRS are not the only ones in Southern California. The Great Bight, south of Australia, shown here in red, is concentric with the San Andreas
Fault, and the Amazonia Crater, from Brazil and the Amazon Basin, know locally as the Garlock Fault, is shown here in yellow. With these three major CGRS
systems crossing in this area makes for a lot of Earthquakes. The San Andreas is NOT California’s only earthquake fault. There is a lot of significance in the
geomorphology we can determine from impacts. California will be covered in greater detail in another Power Point.
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These three sets of CGRS can be traced to every continent on Earth, in that continent’s present location. While you may not be able to see concentric linears at
this resolution, they are clearly visible at closer view.
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And this part of the globe, with the same three sets, see the shorelines of Africa that share concentric form. Use the center location provided elsewhere on this
site, and tracing these circles for yourself is the only way to appreciate the information provided here.
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These three sets are not the only ones world wide. But all 50-60 I have located can be traced from continent to continent. We need to understand the
significance of that. If it is so, then those continents have not moved since the impact event took place. And if we can place the impacts near the start of the
Flood, then continents did not move after those impacts even in the Flood. No significant distance of “plate” motion may have ever taken place.
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One circular lineament I would like to consider is this area of the Uncomphagre Plateau, on the border between Utah and Colorado. The Unaweep Canyon,
squiggly white line in (A). The Unaweep Canyon is a through canyon, open at both ends, but no river runs through it, only a small stream flows from center in
each direction. No significant fault runs through it, so without river or fault, why is the canyon there?? Did a river run through it at one time, but the Colorado
River now runs around the north end of the Uncomphagre Plateau??? The arrows point out some linears that fit the circle with the canyon. These can be seen in
topographic features and gravity changes in (B).
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Grand Valley on the northern half is the path of the Colorado River, but the Colorado River never seems to run through the canyon. But considering that the
“groove” in the Uncomphagre Plateau is an arc of dropped gravity reading from the comparative region on each side of it. With the other points of gravity change
in the blue area, they make a circle as seen in (B).
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In this closer view, the canyon is still here just inside the white circles. But, I have postulated that impact circles will have concentric circles moving out from the
OCR produced by boundary layer interaction with the shock and release waves. If these circular lines exist, this can’t be a random arrangement. We see
repetition, regularity, and with a common center, a recognized purpose (They were all produced by the same event). If I use the yellow area on the
Uncomphagre Plateau…..
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To establish concentric circles using grooves or ravines impressed into the top. My theory about the Release Wave would suggest these topographic markers are
related to such an impact. Drawing circles through those topographic markers……
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Produces circles around the ring I established. While the numbered lines may not lay directly on linears, they are concentric to many additional linears.
Concentric to these circles suggest the continuing outwards expression of the shock and release waves, expressed slightly differently around the circle due to
various differences in local rocks. And this is true all the way around the circle. So I have: Repeated elements, Regular occurrence, and Recognized common
purpose.
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Gulf of Mexico is of great interest to impact lookers, because of its generally round shape. This image is from a web page by the USGS. Even they are considering
the possibility of an impact origin. They seem to be suggesting a crater centered on the gulf. But, if we look at the GoM on gravity maps….
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We see something that is a little different. This is the Terrane map from BGI, I don’t see a circle in the center, but in the western portion, right about here……
Let’s look at the ,,,,,,,,
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Free Air Gravity also shows a circle now in blue.
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Isostasy is a form of Gravity map that takes the mass of the crust into affect. Although the blue circle is thinner, it is even more complete
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Putting a perfect circle on this, I locate the center in a peculiarly shaped gravity hole….
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Remember gravity reading are not exactly like topo maps. The Isomorphic shapes are drawn at a low resolution, so the shape may be far closer to my circle than
this image appears. But the circle does correspond to locations of change. And, when I use this center point to draw lineament circles……….
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Using high points and short linears, I get a series of concentric rings. This is the gravity map. When I switch to Landsat image….
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I can find terrane features that correspond to each of the circles in many locations, and along extended linears.
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I found this interesting cross section view of the Sabine Block, which extends roughly from Little Rock, Arkansas down the border between Texas and Lousiana. If I
interpret this image as an impact cross section it would look similar to ….
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The block lies in this area as indicated by the red triangle
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The two white circles would reflect the circles of the two sides of the open area or Crowning Event (OCR).
One remaining question many of you may be asking is. “Why doesn’t any of this look like a clear circle?? If the circle blew out, all the way around, then what
shows at one location should show all the way around??? At the start, this may have been true, but no one impact was isolated.
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This would give a crater of about 750 km open in the center, 750 km block broken loose, the original Crater Rim, and the Crowning event that produced it made
about a 150 km gap. (For those of you familiar with that area, the Ouachita Mountains would be part of the confusion and blowout from the crowning event and
occur in this 200 km gap.)
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There are also some other peculiarities from the shape of this Sabine Block that can be sketched out The ridge on the bottom resembles a concentric ripple.. The
MOHO on the bottom is approximately parallel to the surface, suggesting both were shaped by the shock wave. If the block were tilted up, the left upper side
would be approximately flat with the surface. Where the block meets the oceanic crust in the center, there is no appearance of bending from isostatic adjustment,
suggesting the block floated to this position immediately after impact. Even compression from the shock wave is preserved in the upper mantle. These ideas are
just a sketch. Much more careful work needs to be accomplished, but, the material is here.
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What happens to crater circles when they overlap?? OR Why aren’t all craters nice and round?? Here is an idea that will test your Spatial Perception. Let’s
consider crater “a”………. We’re going to consider it at any point, so I drew it as a straight line of energy level……..
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But crater “b” and its annulus will have a pattern coming from the right that overlays the energy pattern of the Shock-Release Waves over it. It would have an
energy profile like the dotted red line, but that energy line would interact cumulatively with the original line “a”………
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And, crater “c” is going to come from the left and lays its energy pattern over both of them. Remember the final expression is cumulative or a SUM of all three
energy waves………..
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Represented here by “d”. Where one wave went up and the other down, they cancelled each other out. But where both of them went up or down, they add or
subtract a total of both …..
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… energy levels. The final result at that point is a major shift in that direction. The bottom drawing here is a cross section along line “a” and how the arc of Crater
“a” might look on a gravity map after the additional energy of both (b) and (c) have been added to it. A circle of highs and lows is produced, leaving section in the
blue while others are in the red of our gravity maps . The OCR will go up and down, but it will vary more than either side of it. IT becomes the tendency to vary,
not the actual expression of that variance that makes a OCR or CGRS visible. The Shock wave circle will vary more in the upper gravity readings, while the Release
Wave circle will vary more in the low gravity readings.
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With those thoughts in mind, let’s look at the GoM Crowing event one more time. See the significant blue area to the upper left and the two red areas to the east,
Both of these are primarily contained within the two white circles. There is certainly a lot of other things taking place in this area also, as we can say about all of
the places we have looked at.
This is certainly not all that can be said, but let me stop here and check for questions. I did have one more thing I wanted to cover about seeing lines in the small
linears. This is a spot in the central Pacific, just south of Hawaii. I will let it run while I answer a few questions.
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