Confirmation of a meteoritic component in impact-melt rocks of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA Evidence from osmium isotopic and PGE systematics U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1612, 82 p. Katerina Bartosova, Susanne Gier, J. Wright Horton Jr., Christian Koeberl, Dieter Mader, and Henning Dypvik The Chesapeake Bay impact structure is a ca. Chesapeake Bay, at ca. The Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater (HM1LZ5) Location: Cape Charles, VA 23310 Northampton County Buy Virginia State flags at Flagstore.com! The Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. Much of the work was summarized in a major volume, Gohn et al. ', USGS, 'The Chesapeake meteorite: message from the past. The resolution of our seismic profiles allows us to trace the faults to within 10 m of the bay floor. ==Source== Adapted from North America topography map taken from NASA website. The rivers of the Chesapeake region converged at a location directly over the buried crater. Powars D. S., Johnson G. H., Bruce T. S. (1998) Stratigraphic, structural, and hydrogeological complexities related to the outer rim of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater (abstract). Analysis of seismic profiling has determined that the crater is 85km in diameter and 1.3km deep. These faults are another result of the subsidence of the breccia. Rick Berquist, a geologist with the State of Virginia, has applied for a research permit with the Park to continue his research on the geologic faults associated with the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. The basal gravelly sand (below the cataclasite boulder) has a lower SiO2 content, less K-feldspar, and more mica than the higher sands, and it contains more lithic clasts and melt particles that are probably reworked from the underlying suevite. Considered to be one of the best-preserved "wet-target" impact craters in the world, the Chesapeake Bay Crater is the largest known impact site in the United States. The important question of how large the impactor was that formed the crater remains. Marker is in this post office area: Cape Charles VA 23310, United States of America. This age is in agreement with K/Ar, 40Ar/39Ar, and fission track dates for tektites from the North American strewn field, which have been interpreted as associated with the Chesapeake Bay impact event. 275-285., http://palaios.geoscienceworld.org/content/18/3/275.abstract, Elbra T., Kontny A., Pesonen L. J. Traveling at about 144 000 miles per hour the object created a 25-mile wide crater a half mile deep. Stishovite is unstable above about 300-600C, whereas coesite is stable up to about 1100C, suggesting that the quartz grains studied here were quenched at relatively high postshock temperatures exceeding the stability range of stishovite, but within the stability range facilitating preservation of coesite. In 1993, data from oil exploration revealed the extent of the crater. Some of the faults appear to completely breach the confining unit over the saltwater reservoir. An official website of the United States government. Touch for directions. Several impact-melt rocks with lowest initial 187Os/188Os ratios and the highest osmium concentrations could have been produced by additions of 0.1%-0.2% of a meteoritic component. The Chesapeake Bay watershed drains into five major rivers including the Susquehanna Potomac Rappahannock York and James which provide more than 90 percent of the Bay's fresh water. 377396., http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eespteam/crater/, Fernandes et al., 2012, abstract http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/1775.pdf, Fernandes et al., 2014http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2014/pdf/1274.pdf, http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/2005/1688/ak/PP1688_chapA.pdf, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/session_2233.htm, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_79601.htm. Its presence also limits the availability of freshwater. pp. According to Johnson, the space debris created a crater about 56 miles across and 1.2 miles deep (90 kilometers across, 1.9 kilometers deep) when it slammed into the ocean, through several hundred feet of ocean water and a couple thousand feet of sediments, near the present-day mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. One of the largest impact craters on the planet is located not too far from Washington D.C. The presence of this hypersaline aquifer has some practical implications for ground-water management in the lower bay region. Specs: Discovered in the early 1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Crater is located approximately 125 miles (201 . [7], The continual slumping of the rubble within the crater has affected the flow of the rivers and shaped the Chesapeake Bay. S.R. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. In place of those aquifers, there is now a single huge reservoir with a volume of 4,000 cubic kilometers. The Chesapeake Bay impact crater was formed by a bolide that struck the eastern shore of North America about 35.5 0.3 million years ago, in the late Eocene epoch. The two youngest zircon grains yield an inversevariance weighted mean (UTh)/He age of 33.990.71Ma (2 uncertainties n=2; mean square weighted deviation=2.6; probability [P]=11%), which is interpreted to be the (UTh)/He age of formation of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. Crater-related ground subsidence also may play a role in the high rate of relative sea-level rise documented for the Chesapeake Bay region. 6, pp. In The ICDP-USGS Deep Drilling Project in the Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure: Results from the Eyreville core holes, edited by Gohn G. S., Koeberl C., Miller K. G., and Reimold W. U. GSA Special Paper 458. Mr. The crater is approximately 200 km southeast of Washington, D.C. and is now buried 300-500 metres beneath the southern part of Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay impact crater was formed by a bolide that impacted the eastern shore of North America about 35.5 0.3 million years ago, in the late Eocene epoch. Learn more here. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Meteoritics and Planetary Science, Volume 31, Issue 2, pp. About 35 million years ago, an asteroid hit the ocean off the East Coast of North America. a (UTh)/He age of 33.990.71Ma (2 uncertainties n=2; mean square weighted deviation=2.6; probability [P]=11%), which is interpreted to be the (UTh)/He age of formation of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. Edited by J. W. Horton, Jr., D. S. Powars, and G. S. Gohn. Poag is mapping the location, orientation, and amount of offset of these compaction faults. The watershed is larger than most U.S. states totaling 64 000 square miles or 96 percent of the size of New England. 2004), isamong the Earths largest and, at 35 Ma age, one of the best preserved impactstructures known on Earth. Geohydrologists have known of this salty water for decades, but only now are we beginning to grasp the true nature of its origin and distribution. The Chesapeake Bay impact crater is the largest in the United States, but geologists discovered it only in 1983. Colonial National Historical Park Chesapeake Impact Crater Fault Line Location Project Part 2 Document List. The wide varieties of clast lithologies and microfossil assemblages were derived from at least seven known Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene stratigraphic units. Marker is at the intersection of Mason Avenue and Bay Avenue, on the left when traveling west on Mason Avenue. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Powars D. S., Poag C. W., Mixon R. B. Boulder, Colorado. They could allow the salty water to flow upward and contaminate the freshwater supply. Copyright 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 United States Meteorite Impact Craters. Below are multimedia items associated with this project. The rhenium and platinum-group element (PGE) concentrations of these rocks are 30-270?? : Horton and Izett, 2005; Pusz et al., 2009). "Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure - 35 Million Years After - and Still Making An Impact." It is one of the best-preserved "wet-target" impact craters in the world.[3]. The core of the crater is 24 miles across, with a circular crater of about 53 miles. Most of the rivers, like the Rappahannock, flow southeastward to the Atlantic. (1994) Convulsive events in Atlantic coastal plain evolution - effects of the Chesapeake Bay bolide impact (abstract). Lee S. R., Horton Jr. J. W., Walker R. J. (Biren et al 2019). 235255. At this time the sea level was much higher and the coastline was in the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia. Quartz and K-feldspar are the main sand-size minerals and smectite and kaolinite are the principal clay minerals. The entire circular crater is about 53mi (85km) in diameter and 0.81mi (1.3km) deep, an area twice the size of Rhode Island, and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon. The Chesapeake Bay impact crater. This sea level exposed the area that now is the bay bottom and continental shelf. Continued slumping of sediments over the rubble of the crater has helped shape the Chesapeake Bay. Please search for specific craters. bThe rim of the Chesapeake Crater is a boundary between salty ground water within the craters confines and fresh ground water on the outside. . 120., Griscom D. L. (2001) Possible identification of proximal ejecta from the Upper-Eocene Chesapeake Bay crater (abstract), European Science Foundation: Impact Programme, 6thESF-IMPACT Workshop, Granada, Spain, 35., Griscom D. L. (2002) Is Washington DC built on ejecta deposits of the upper-Eocene Chesapeake Bay Crater? It has a unique morphology composed of an inner crater penetrating crystalline basement surrounded by a wider crater in the overlying sediments. 147-170. GSA Special Paper 458. How is the Chesapeake Bay crater hidden? Catchings, R.D., Saulter, D.E., Powars, D.S., Goldman, M.R., Dingler, J.A., Gohn, G.S., Schindler, J.S., and Johnson, G.H., 2001, High-resolution seismic reflection/refraction images near the outer margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, York-James Peninsula, southeastern Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-407, 18 p. Edwards, L.E., Horton, J.W., Jr., and Gohn, G.S., 2004, ICDP-USGS Workshop on deep drilling in the central crater of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA, September 22-24, 2003: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1016, CD. Today, the lake Acraman a dry lake of 20 km diameter marks the location of . It is a complex peak-ring crater with an inner and outer rim, a relatively flat-floored annular trough, and an inner basin that penetrates the basement. It is one of the largest known impact craters on Earth. The entire bolide event, from initial impact to the termination of breccia deposition, lasted only a few hours or days. These are also the coords. ABSTRACT The river diversions are at the rim of this sag. Virginia, and the District of Columbia disguised as ?5000 km2 of upland deposits, Geological Society of America Wetumpka Field Forum 2007 Guidebook and Abstracts, 85. Powars D. S., Bruce T. S., Poag C. W., Mixon R. B. The crater is extremely well preserved, and is open to the public for viewing. Richmond, VA 23228 Located beneath the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay running from underneath the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula (near present-day Cape Charles, Virginia), across the Bay to Norfolk, Virginia, the roughly circular crater is twice the size of Rhode Island (2,500 sq mi [6,400 sq km]) and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (0.8 mi [1.3 km] deep). The entire bolide event, from initial impact to the termination of breccia deposition, lasted only a few hours or days. 363-428, doi:10.5194/sed-4-363-2012. 01, January 1998 ByCarl Zimmer Thursday, January 1, 1998. (2009) Megablocks and melt pockets in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure constrained by magnetic field measurements and properties of the Eyreville and Cape Charles cores. 12631266, doi:10.1126/science.271.5253.1263, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/271/5253/1263, Lee S. R., Horton Jr. J. W., Walker R. J. Location. 689-703. doi: 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2006.tb00985.x, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2006.tb00985.x/abstract. </p><p>Lester, W. R., (2006), Structure of the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater from Wide . The correlation between cores, well cuttings, and boreho, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 12: Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), High-resolution seismic reflection/refraction images near the outer margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, York-James Peninsula, southeastern Virginia, The effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater on the geologic framework and the correlation of hydrogeologic units of southeastern Virginia, south of the James River, The effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater on the geological framework and correlation of hydrogeologic units of the lower York-James Peninsula, Virginia. K1-K32., McDonald I., Bartosova K., Koeberl C. (2009) Search for a meteoritic component in impact breccia from the Eyreville core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure: Considerations from platinum group element contents, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America, Issue 458, pp. Powars, D.S., and Bruce, T.S., 1999, The effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater on the geological framework and correlation of hydrogeologic units of the Lower York-James Peninsula, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1612, 82 p. Prepared in cooperation with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. Its impact formed a 25-mile diameter crater that now lies buried beneath the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary in Virginia and Maryland. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. The topography also reflects the differential subsidence. Crater ( HM1LZ5 ) location: Cape Charles, VA 23310 Northampton County Chesapeake. 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