Mr Charters
So what do you think will be down there.
WETUMPKA, Ala. (AP) - The curving ridge beside U.S. 231 north of Montgomery looks like any other hill to the untrained eye, but geologists see something entirely different: the remains of a colossal collision that occurred millions of years ago.
And they say 1998 will be the year in which they get to the bottom - literally - of this big dent in the Alabama countryside.
Experts soon plan to drill into what is believed to be the crater left by a gigantic meteorite that slammed into the Earth at least 65 million years ago. The impact would have triggered an explosion hundreds of times more powerful that any nuclear weapon.
The rock-and-metal meteorite, estimated at 1,150 feet in diameter, was likely traveling about 12 miles a second when it struck the Earth.
''An infared flash would be so hot that everything flammable within 30 miles would catch fire,'' said Auburn University geologist David King Jr.
No one knows what's under the surface of the semicircular crater, which is five miles across and 100 feet deep. But similar sites have yielded petroleum and even small diamonds created by the immense heat and force of the collision.
''I don't expect to find oil in Wetupmka, but it's a possibility,'' said King. ''You never know what that kind of drilling will show. It's unknown territory.''
King said two holes 500 feet deep will be drilled into the ''astrobleme'' by a Birmingham geological company as a gift to Auburn University in the first quarter of 1998. Materials removed from the core can be analyzed.
The crater and its rim, which rises about 300 feet above the flood plain of the nearby Coosa River plain, were discovered in 1971 by Tony Neathery of Tuscaloosa. He said he noticed the rim of the crater was higher than other ridges in the area, plus it was curved rather than straight.
Mr Metals |
