Meteor Craters of Iowa | ADULT SUMMER READING PROGRAM 2019

Did you know that there are two huge meteor craters right here in Iowa? Dr. Ray Anderson, Adjunct Professor, UI Earth & Environmental Studies Department, will discuss what happened 74 million years ago when a meteor over one mile in diameter, weighing about 10 billion tons and traveling about 45,000 miles per hour, blasted through the atmosphere and blasted a 5-mile deep hole at what is today the town of Mason, about 50 miles northwest of Ames. But this wasn't Iowa's first meteor impact. About 469 million years ago numerous fragments of a fractured asteroid crashed to Earth, one fragment in northeast Iowa at what is now Decorah. These impacts may have contributed to the great Ordovicaian biodiversification event, one of the largest mass extinction events on planet Earth!

[@billsmith5166]

Really interesting stuff! Thanks for the video.

[@richardseys6594]

I lived in NewPort News Va. where the Chesapeake bay meteor of 35 mil years ago left ripples across the land driving down Warwick blvd. was an up and down affair . Newport news is about 50 miles from the impact site now on the Eastern shore of Va. tough to drill and get fresh water instead one normaly gets brackish water salt fresh mixed undrinkable bad for plants

[@clarencemcgregor8568]

How about the little one just north of Estherville Iowa?

[@debzzoo52]

You are a good speaker...you kept it very interesting.

[@micl6562]

Noticed a flaw in the math and just kept going? Huh.