Ancient Meteorite Debris Found In Minn.

Forest Fire Reveals Rock Dust From Impact 1.85 Billion Years Ago In Canada

(AP)  A meteorite that slammed into Earth 1.85 billion years ago at the present site of Sudbury, Ontario, is now making news 500 miles away in northeastern Minnesota.

When the Ham Lake fire burned more than 118 square miles in northeastern Minnesota and Ontario in May, geologists had a field trip scheduled along the Gunflint Trail for the annual meeting of the Institute of Lake Superior Geology.

The fire closed access to most areas the group had planned to visit, so Minnesota Geological Survey geologist Mark Jirsa went up the trail to scout new locations.

In a spot he had never visited, with fire in three directions, Jirsa found evidence of a cataclysm that probably no one but a geologist would have noticed — debris from the Sudbury impact.

That blast created a crater more than 150 miles across, scattering rock and dust over nearly a million square miles.

"It's fairly dark rock," Jirsa said. "They look like concrete, but in this concrete you would throw pieces of rock of all sizes and shapes and in all possible orientations."

The rock includes balls the size and shape of a large taconite pellet which Jirsa believes formed in the impact's huge, hot cloud of dust, much as hailstones form in a storm cloud.

Jirsa says the Gunflint area probably was in or near a shallow sea when the meteorite stuck. He says there are indications that a huge tsunami may have ripped up the sea bottom and seashore, mixing them with rocks fallen from the sky into the concrete-appearing geological mess he found.

University of Toronto geology professor James Mungall, who has researched and written about the Sudbury meteorite for the scientific journal Nature, said the meteorite was probably traveling between 12 and 37 miles per second when it hit Earth with a force equal to several billion Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. Temperatures soared above 10,000 degrees, 6,500 cubic miles of rock melted and the huge crater formed.

"The object was probably between 10 and 20 kilometers in diameter, and some of us think it was more likely to have been a comet than an asteroid, but there is no definitive evidence," Mungall said.

Previously, material thrown out by the meteorite's impact had been found as far from Sudbury as Hibbing. But the Hibbing materials — tiny fragments of shocked quartz and small ejecta — were found in core samples from 800 to 1,000 feet below the Earth's surface, while the Gunflint site lies exposed.

Jirsa said there's still much work to be done in the field to determine what secrets the Gunflint site holds that other sites don't.

"That's the critical thing. This is a different geological setting; it's a little farther away from the impact, the rocks are altered differently. It may reveal some secrets about the impact that other discoveries haven't yet. That's what we're hoping," Jirsa said.

"I think the excitement for the people of Minnesota is that we are one place in the world where you can see evidence of an ancient meteorite impact," said University of Minnesota geology professor emeritus Paul Weiblen, who is studying the debris. "This is the second-oldest and second-largest impact crater in the world."

[actornaught]

what Eitakj said. Don't let s'ick represent anyone but a small twisted minority.

[eitakj]

I am a Christian. Please don't let singingrick speak for ALL Christians. We are NOT all like him. Thank You!

Also, I went to private school. When I was about 8 years old, I asked "If God created the world in 7 days, how can the dinosaurs have lived millions of years before us?" I was told that a 'day' could have been millions of years. The Bible was written before 'scientists' had calculated things like the earth's rotation, revolution around the sun, etc.

Most real 'Christians' are open-minded and accept that anything is possible. We are not all fanatics that try to push our beliefs on everyone else. Singingrick reminds me of the Jahovah's Witnesses that used to come knocking on my door EARLY on Sunday mornings to tell me that I was a sinner for believing something differently than them. They finally stopped after I invited them in to debate - I won. Score! I haven't heard from them in years!

[blackbug99]

My bad...scientific evidence

[blackbug99]

singinrick - you're a moron to ignore scientic evidence. Who's to say this isn't your Gods plan? Study the *** rocks and get on with it.

[farmerbb]

Maybe we should all agree not to respond to Singinrick. He will NEVER believe in science, no matter what we say, or even show him. I doubt even life on another planet will serve. Bye, rick. And please don't accuse me of giving up because my case is weak. I believe you are beyond convincing of the merits of science. It would be interesting to hear what you do for a living, though.

[farmerbb]

Another reason creationism is not supported by any but a few scientists......we can't say "Hey, that's really cool ! Do it again ! I want to watch it from the other side this time ". There is no instant replay available. We CAN observe evolution, and as for what WE will evolve into, ask us again in a few thousand years. As for the earth and everything else appearing out of nothing, isn't that what you claim god did ? Scientists don't claim the universe arose from nothing, but from the residue of the Big Bang. They are still discussing how that happened, but their is LOTS of evidence that SOMETHING like that happened. There is no evidence I am aware of, of the PROCESS of creationism. In both cases we have the results, but at least for the Big Bang we can see evidence of the process, and of its' continuing actions. Not true for creationism.

[farmerbb]

Singinrick, you tried to use Patrick Glynn as an expert on the subject of the origin of the earth. He has a PHD (from Harvard) and abandoned his atheism for God, after a detailed search of the scientific literature, you say. Well, guess what...a search of his name on Google reveals his PHD was for English and American literature ! If I found a PHD in chemistry who did a similar search of literature maybe he/she would claim he no longer believed in Mark Twain. Find a majority of SCIENTISTS in the fields relating to the origin of the earth who believe in creationism, and maybe I might go along. And one other thing...you say you want creationism taught in schools along with evolution...how about the religious beliefs (about the origin of the earth) of Hindus, Muslims, Confucians, Shinto and all the other organized religions. Should they be allowed into the schools as well ? The reason evolution is so successful is that it is a SCIENTIFIC theory, which means it has passed intense scrutiny, BY SCIENTISTS, not authors of books on "religion, politics and foreign affairs", and can be tested, observed and compared to other theories in other fields, and they all hang together. Creationism is a theory, but is not scientific, as it cannot be tested or observed, and does not align with other scientific theories.

[ingie912]

I thought this article was about a meteroite being found.

I thought being Christian was loving thy neighbor.

SinginRick -- You claim everyone who has responded to your initial comment is intolerant and full of hatred. You also seem to suggest that they are against Jesus or God. From what I have read thus far it 'seems' that you have done the majority of maligning and had you not cast the first stone ... If you have something pertinent to say in regards to a very interesting article than by all means please share your thoughts, but I don't believe that this forum was intended for preaching.

[nothappyatall]

"allow me to speak from a religious perspective here: i"

NO! Dam you, take your phucking religion, jesus, god and bibull krap ELSEWHERE! you stupid idiots worhip a scheming murdering wicked piece of garbage and then come here and foist this religious krap off on the rest of us, this is a SCIENCE article not Sunday school- GET OUT and take your dam cross and jezus with you! Some of us have grown up past Santa Claus, jesus and the tooth fairy, it's time YOU DO TOO or produce this jesus on TV in person, or on live stage and PROVE it exists.

[actornaught]

s'ick, put your pants on & get some air.

[actornaught]

What a colossal waste of space to feed some poor schmuck's obsession with trying to "prove" his faith, an oxymoron. It just proves the definition of mental illness.

None of this has any business being attached to a science article.

[mnelsonix]

talkingham, well said. awesome.

[mnelsonix]

balance2008,

I like the way you think. You are not an atheist. You understand that the Creator just might be clever enough to create a dynamic universe...a universe capable of evolving.

The belief that God created the lion to lay beside the lamb (and not have lunch) is reading a metaphor and taking it "as gospel." Hence the term "as gospel." True Believers see the scriptures alone. They don't understand that Christ spoke in parables and maybe, just maybe, the Old Testament is a parable.

They refuse to use the powers of observation given to us by our creator. So rick will *** science and keep his faith in Christ.

Some of us have both.

[talkingham]

By the bogus balls of Zeus this is feisty buncha zealots. Everyone knows God is white, male and conservative and that the Earth is a bit less than 5,000 years old. So get on with your silly scientific method and what not, talk'in 'bout somethin came from nuthin and what not. And because God is so conservative heaven is probably divided into separate and somewhat equal heavens for the different races and what not. You see the stars in the heavens are just light showing through where the paint has flecked off the cosmic orb in which we exist -- according to certain Greek mythology- which is of course only mythology because there is only one God and one true religion according all the different religions that make that claim.
Science is just so foolish. To think that beings created by God could have enough intelligence to figure anything for themselves.

As for old sing-rick he should just keep singing because no one has ever implied that men evolved from monkeys other than anti-darwinites and igits. It's more likely that we ascended from rat like creatures and maybe a fish or two. Our body has almost the exact same elements by weight as sea water so it's likely we came from the sea in some form in our god-given distant past. Some of you should take the time to read the oldest testment - the stories our planet and the cosmos can tell us rather than some greed driven poltically motivated history "lesson" extracted from oen religion's good book.

[star2510]

oh yeah right,they actually lived for over 700 years, come on... who is a monkeys a$$ now? So, what were Cain and Abels sisters names? How come they aren't common knowlege like Adam and Eve and Cain and Able.... granted I do not know the bible front to back and upside down but as a child I learned what I know and this dosen't make sense to me.... and we are not evolving anymore because we are perfect RIGHT? no need to respond to me .. I am leaving for the day.... you better go sit back and relax before you have a heart attack. your comments sound so stressful, I can almot hear you screaming... take care

[star2510]

singinrick... you need to take a chill pill. I never said I didn't believe in God, he is the one who made the monkeys that we evolved from, and you are the biggest ape of all. and the something out of nothing that I was speaking of is Adam and Eve and as the story goes they had two boys Cain and Abel right?? How did the rest of us evolve from two boys? That there my friend is the the question of the day... are we all a product of incest? (with their mom????)

[adventurepa]

Singinrick,
Thank's for the offer rick. Not necessary to post your e-mail however.
"Miracle of birth" - Does that include the births of all animals are now miracles? I thought it was just reproduction.

"The mere fact that this planet is floating in the middle of outer space and can contain life is a miracle."
The earth was made as lot's of space dust came together over a very long time, attracted by the force of gravity. Since this dust was swirling around a bit as it came together to make the earth, the earth ended up spinning, and the rest is history. When something is spinning it has a property we call angular momentum. The angular momentum of an object can not change unless outside forces are exerting twists on it.

Well, I guess if I listened and had faith in what you say about miricles Rick, I wouldn't need those *** scientists and their explainations.
Or the history channel with the show universe last night. Great show bye the way.

Who is Jesus to you anyhow? Just a nice guy who taught good morals?
A murder victim, because of religious followers, teachers and the power elite.

[star2510]

singinrick: do you kow who actually wrote the bible?

[star2510]

PS.... didn't God make the monkeys??

[star2510]

wow, I thought this article was about metorite debri.... where did all this stuff about God and evolution come in? I went back a few pages but got tired of reading singinricks holy than tho bull* I am till trying to figure out how you make something out of nothing..... as in creatism...