Giant Impact Near India -- Not Mexico -- May Have Doomed Dinosaurs

The scale of this impact is crazy. the object was four times bigger than the one in the Yucatan Peninsula!

Giant Impact Near India -- Not Mexico -- May Have Doomed Dinosaurs

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2009) — A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago.

Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University and a team of researchers took a close look at the massive Shiva basin, a submerged depression west of India that is intensely mined for its oil and gas resources. Some complex craters are among the most productive hydrocarbon sites on the planet. Chatterjee will present his research at this month's Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon.

“If we are right, this is the largest crater known on our planet,” Chatterjee said. “A bolide of this size, perhaps 40 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter creates its own tectonics.”

By contrast, the object that struck the Yucatan Peninsula, and is commonly thought to have killed the dinosaurs was between 8 and 10 kilometers (5 and 6.2 miles) wide.

That would have been some show!

So it wasn't the Yucatán Peninsula impact that did it for the dinosaurs, just an update for you all.

An asteroid or an ancient super weapon? let's not forget all the Indian mythology...

news.nationalgeographic.com...

4 times bigger? I don't think so...

The Chicxulub crater is over 100 miles wide...

reply to post by StingrayCrazy


I am afraid that you are mistaken. The ASTEROID itself was 4 times bigger than the one in Mexico. NOT the crater, they are talking about the size of the actual asteroid itself.

Originally posted by masterp
An asteroid or an ancient super weapon? let's not forget all the Indian mythology...

To be honest I believe we have in the past had such things ass atomic bombs and other massive, powerful weapons, based on alot of Indian mythology. And the mythology of other peoples, places and religions. I try and take a bit of wisdom from everywhere I can, and in doing so, have read several ancient tales that relate what could have been massive weaponry.

However, 25 miles across is a mighty large crater.

As it says, the largest known on the planet quite possibly.

In this case, I am going to have to go with a comet or asteroid or something of a large size or a very fast speed.

But I still believe in ancient times we had technology on a similar level to what we have now.

Originally posted by StingrayCrazy
news.nationalgeographic.com...

4 times bigger? I don't think so...

The Chicxulub crater is over 100 miles wide...

Just for your sake, I will explain what this says. I hope I don't come across as a jerk, I am just trying to help, I promise

This is from your link, Stingray:

"112-mile (180-kilometer) wide, 3,000-foot (900-meter) deep impact crater"

112-mile wide crater.

This is from the OP's link:

"If we are right, this is the largest crater known on our planet,” Chatterjee said. “A bolide of this size, perhaps 40 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter creates its own tectonics.”

It's a bit confusing since they too mention the crater in the same sentence, but what they said is:“A bolide of this size, perhaps 40 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter”

And a bolide is:

"bolide [ˈbəʊlaɪd -lɪd]
n
(Astronomy) a large exceptionally bright meteor that often explodes Also called fireball"

So the bolide or meteor is 25 miles wide.

In conclusion:

"The geological evidence is dramatic. Shiva's outer rim forms a rough, faulted ring some 500 kilometers in diameter, encircling the central peak, known as the Bombay High, which would be 3 miles tall from the ocean floor (about the height of Mount McKinley)."

Holy moley that's huge.

reply to post by StingrayCrazy


This one is 500km.
2ndline

reply to post by masterp



Much later. The mythology goes back (supposedly) 80,000 years. 65 million is vastly different.

reply to post by BaronVonGodzilla


I see you beat me on some of the replies.

Are you around the area for the event?

www.geosociety.org...

reply to post by kiwifoot


if anything could obliterate any trace of a civilization...that would do it

We needed to find more large craters because the event 65 million years ago that wiped out the Dinosaurs wasn't the only mass extinction event.

I thought scientists had measured the iridium layer thickness in 65 million year old sediments got thicker the closer to the Yucatan peninsula they got, which would seem to confirm that was the site for that impact, but I'm open to seeing new evidence. I don't see any such evidence in the article linked.

So what I'm wondering, is what if this crater in India was the cause of the mass extinction 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, which wiped out 90 percent of all species on Earth?

There is also a 3rd impact we need to find (or other catastrophic event) that caused a third extinction, not as large, wiping out "only" 50% of all species, about 200 million years ago:

www.unisci.com...

A mass extinction about 200 million years ago which destroyed at least half of the species on Earth happened very quickly and is demonstrated in the fossil record by the collapse of one-celled organisms called protists, according to new research led by a University of Washington paleontologist.

There is no definitive evidence yet on what caused the demise of so many species, Ward said. However, the suddenness of the event is similar to two better-known mass extinctions -- one 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian period that killed some 90 percent of all species, the other 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period that sent the dinosaurs into oblivion.

The extinction 200 million years ago, at the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods, killed the last of the mammal-like reptiles that once roamed the Earth and left mainly dinosaurs, Ward said. That extinction happened in less than 10,000 years -- in the blink of an eye, geologically speaking.

Of course one concern is that plate tectonics could determine whether or not we can actually find all 3 impact craters (if all 3 events resulted from impacts). If the impact occurred in the middle of a plate, the crater may still be relatively intact even if buried. If the impact straddled 2 or more plates in a subduction zone, tectonic activity could erase all existence of the ancient crater.

Could have been a case of multiple impacts *one near Mexico, one near India*. Just a thought.

Originally posted by Watcher-In-The-Shadows
Could have been a case of multiple impacts *one near Mexico, one near India*. Just a thought.

I was thinking the same thing. Like the one that hit Jupiter a few years back, it had split into several pieces before it hit. There could be several more smaller ones that haven't been discovered yet.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

I thought scientists had measured the iridium layer thickness in 65 million year old sediments got thicker the closer to the Yucatan peninsula they got, which would seem to confirm that was the site for that impact, but I'm open to seeing new evidence. I don't see any such evidence in the article linked.

I found some supporting evidence for this:

geowords.com...

Thick, and spectacular, tsunami deposits of EK boundary age are located in Cuba and Haiti. In Cuba the tsunamis formation is 450 meters thick and contains blocks up to 2 meters in diameter. So, A Caribbean location for the impact crater could be inferred. And, debate as to the origin of the iridium anomaly was soon to cease: In Haiti, the terminal sediment layer of the Cretaceous contains, mixed together with the iridium anomaly and irrefutable evidence for a bolide: abundant shock-metamorphosed quartz grains, and tektites

Now you raise an interesting question if there can be more than one fragment of a larger object impacting the earth and shoemaker-levy 9 impacting on Jupiter in 1994 showed this is indeed possible.

But keep in mind that these craters are more or less on opposite sides of the earth. That doesn't rule out the multiple impact theory but it doesn't support it.

But the bottom line is that to date the massive crater in India, will require geological sedimentary excavations in the surrounding areas to similarly look for the telltale signs of shocked quartz, and greater thickness of ejecta deposits near the crater that get thinner as you move away from the crater. Then they need to determine the ages of those sediments where the obvious signs of a local impact are found. This is a lot of digging and a lot of work. But this will be what it takes to accurately date the India impact crater.

So the multiple impact theory could be proven or disproven once all this sedimentary data is collected and analyzed.

If there WAS a multiple impact 65 million years ago (MYA), then we still have to explain the extinctions 200 MYA and 250 MYA and find impact craters for those (if impacts caused the mass extinctions).

[edit on 17-10-2009 by Arbitrageur]

Nah....

Pretty sure it was the flood.

I guess we will never find evidence of the biggest collision of all time. The one where another celestial body struck the earth to create the moon. I often attribute plate tectonics to this event, which is evidenced only by the straight lines under the oceans as seen on any map. These "stretch marks" are a sign of sudden and not gradual division of the continents.

Secondly, Where in relation to the Indian Crater are the Indian Deccan Trapps? I believe the Deccan Trapps in India also played a role in the dino extinction since it is know to have been spewing lava during the same time frame as the Chixilube impact.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

But keep in mind that these craters are more or less on opposite sides of the earth. That doesn't rule out the multiple impact theory but it doesn't support it.

It doesn't really do anything to the multiple impact theory if you think about it. The globe spins so if the impacting objects where far enough apart one would hit on one part of the globe then the other would hit another perhaps even the otherside of the planet. But I don't think it would be like Shoemaker Levy 9 because it was Jupiter's gravy that ripped it apart if memory serves and Earth as you know doesn't hold a candle.