Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusm.t22a..08b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #T22A-08
Mathematics
Logic
1206 Crustal Movements: Interplate (8155), 1208 Crustal Movements: Intraplate (8110), 1236 Rheology Of The Lithosphere And Mantle (8160), 1600 Global Change (New Category), 1630 Impact Phenomena
Scientific paper
Several lines of evidence indicate that an asteroid impact was responsible for the Permian extinction, an event temporally followed by the fragmentation of Pangaea. Until now, however, no suitably large impact site has been identified. Taken together, the following geological structures constitute 225 degrees of arc curvature of a circle centered on a point located off the coast of modern Cameroon: (1) the west coast of Africa; extending into (2) the north coast of Africa; and, continuing as (3) the Great African Rift throughout its extent. The degree of circularity for this geological structure exceeds that employed to identify impact structures on the Moon and other solid bodies in heliocentric orbits. By this measure alone, one can recognize that a massive impact is the only physical process that could have produced the circular fracture geometry that is observed. The timing of this impact can be discerned when it is noted that two radially oriented transpression ridge faults caused the SA plate to separate from the (newly formed) African coastline, and that the Appalachian mountains of NA once formed an arc of curvature concentric with the NW coast of the modern African plate. Together, these features demonstrate that the "Cameroon impact" occurred prior to the fragmentation of Pangaea and that Pangaea fractured along fault lines generated by this same impact. Once one accepts that Earth's structural geology retains a record of very large ancient impacts, the same impact model reveals a previously unrecognized power source for plate tectonic motions. If one assumes that the Cameroon impactor penetrated all the way through the Pangaean landform of the Permian era, it can be seen that NA, SA, and Africa subsequently slid "downhill" and away from the upper mantle bulge so produced. As a consequence, it appears that gravitational accretion is the larger process that has powered these plate tectonic motions into the modern era. These various considerations identify the Cameroon impact as: (1) the most probable cause for the Permian extinction; and, (2) as the primary reason that Pangaea fragmented into the modern continental plates. Finally, certain physical properties and attributes of the Cameroon impactor can be discerned from the above scenario when additional geochemical findings are included in the analysis. This characterization has significant implications re the design and goals of impactor detection programs, Earth protection schemes, and life-survival systems contemplated for the immediate and distant future.
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