Iowa has Impact

Image via Wikipedia

Until last night, I wasn't even aware that there is a massive meteor crater, the edge of which is where Manson, Iowa, sits.

Some 74 million years ago, an asteroid, or comet nucleus, hit the area, and killed everything in a 150 mile radius, and ejected debris worldwide for over 10 years. It was originally thought to be the impact that killed the dinosaurs, but was too far back in time for that to be the case (the smoking gun crater has since been located in Chiluxub, Mexico).

During successive ice ages, the crater was filled with glacial till and alluvial foam (I love to speak geology like I know what I am talking about).

Unfortunately, Bruce Willis was not around back then to drill a nuclear device into the object. Not that that would have helped do anything but create several impact craters.

~Robert

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