Saturday, October 2, 2010

Could the Great Lakes have been formed in a mere ten years?

Hi David:

I mentioned on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory that many scientists now believe the Great Lakes were created in ten years around 13,000 years ago. You asked how that was possible. There's now a lot of evidence that an asteroid or comet exploded above--or perhaps partially on--the Laurentide Ice Sheet near where the Great Lakes now reside. This exploding extraterrestrial object would have generated enough heat to eventually eradicate much of that glacier, and its icemelt would have filled the Great Lakes in a shockingly short time period. This extraterrestrial explosion is known as "the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Event" or sometimes "the Clovis Comet". Its impact markers are composed in part of n-type nanodiamonds, magnetized grains and microspherules, glassy carbon and polycyclic hydrocarbons. Many of these impact markers are found near or even at the bottom of the Great Lakes.

Best,
Bob Gleason

3 comments:

  1. In regard to forming large bodies of water in short order, some astrobiologists believe that the source of the water that forms almost 70 percent of the earth's surface, our oceans, rivers and lakes, were formed when a large comet impacted with earth.

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  2. Then there's the forty days and nights of Bibical rain that flooded the whole world. But space rock and ice forming the Great Lakes makes me reflect upon is what a tiny, fragile world we live on, a mere speck in the solar system that's not even a speck in the universe. Makes you think about the wonder of what we have here . . . and what else might be out THERE.

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  3. There are a number of comet theories about Lake Michigan, particularly the lower basin. The only problem with the Clovis Comet is that it would have exploded on or over an ice sheet. Otherwise the crater formed by a comet at some time prior can be seen via Google, and forms a consistent crater into Illinois and lower Wisconsin. I had rocks tested for Iridium and they did not indicate a strike, but then, there are lots of rocks I didn't test.

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