The Haughton Impact Crater- Why we are Here! |
Day 4 , Monday July 18 continued
As some of you know I’m not the most physically coordinated person around. This is particularly true when it comes to going uphill, with no trail is worse and rocky is just usually beyond me. After dinner John led a hike to the rim of the crater. I forgot that in order to be a rim there had to be a drop on either side. About 15 minutes into the walk we approached the outer wall of the crater. It’s not really a big deal everyone just hiked on up. I paused for a moment and considered my normal rocky vertical ascent mode, crawling on hands and feet. I think John could read my mind because he came up next to me and took my left hand. I had his hiking pole in my right and he led me up the rocks. He led me back down after our visit to the crater holding my right hand and walking sideways down. The dignity of the explorer within was saved.
Science alert: What I'm sharing here is what a remember several busy hours later. Some of the data may not be perfect. If you have a chance to research the crater or John on the internet you will learn much more
Up on the crater rim he told us about the crater. It is 22 KM in diameter. The Meteor that caused it was about 1/10 that size. This “impact” happened about 39 million years ago. The object was traveling so fast that it had broken up by the time it reached earth. The energy shock waves cause the earth below it to become dust like particles and rise into the air causing the hole or crater. Ridges and hills in the crater were cause by the settling and sometimes melting together of the particles. This is very simplified science and I hope to learn more. For at least 10 years the weather was impacted by the dust in the air. There have been amazing animal fossils found here (rhinos and an amphibious seal) because the earth was so torn apart that many remains came to the surface.
Perma-frost I thought if there was no snow there was no perma-frost WRONG teacher Julie! Perma-frost is a measurement of soil temperature any soil that is at zero Celsius is perma-frost. Although there is no snow and the soil can be dug up with your hand (sort of) there is perma-frost under our feet 1500 feet down.
Kira is working on her masters thesis investigating life in the perma-frost. One of the scientists coming up soon is going to dig to perma-frost
We saw Artic poppies on our hike (same flowers as in Resoluteand another flower no one could remember the name of and a bird called the Arctic Bungy.
Flowering plants are very rare! |
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