Ancient Crash, Epic Wave

avtchillsboro writes "A NY Times article says that scientists have discovered evidence a massive impact crater 18 miles in diameter and 12,500 feet under the Indian Ocean. The evidence, they say, consists of four massive chevron-shaped sediment deposits on the island of Madagascar. 'Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction — toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface.' Interestingly, the scientists say that the currently accepted notion that there have been no major impacts in the last 10,000 years is wrong; and that major impacts occur on average every 1,000 years, rather than the currently accepted 500,000 to 1,000,000 year interval. '(T)he self-described "band of misfits" that make up the two-year-old Holocene Impact Working Group say that astronomers simply have not known how or where to look for evidence of such impacts along the world's shorelines and in the deep ocean.'"

Comments

Ancient crash?

[LiquidCoooled]

Does that mean Microsoft was behind the blue wave of death?

New SI units

[Dunbal]

Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high.

      Can anyone help me with the conversion here? How many football fields to a Chrysler Building, and how many cubic libraries of congress to a Manhattan? Sheesh whatever happened to things like meters, or even feet?

Re:New SI units

[mrjb]

Turns out it is 1.58573928 furlongs high.

Re:New SI units

[Red Flayer]

How many football fields to a Chrysler Building

With or without the endzones?

how many cubic libraries of congress to a Manhattan?

Huh? That's just apples and oranges, my friend. LoCs are a measurement of data capacity, not physical volume. Besides, the "area of Manhattan" is two-dimensional, not a cubic measurement.

It's all well and good to ask for measurements in standard units like an LoC, but let's make sure we use them correctly.

The correct answer would be 3.487 football fields (sans endzones) high over two Manhattans, or 8,086,748.43 hogsheads. Was that so hard?

Ooops you went too far.

[tgd]

Insulting Slashdot is a good way to get modded up, but pointing out the lack of girlfriends is going to swing the moderators the other direction!

N00b mistake...

You always comment on the staleness of news, then insult Zonk, make a side quip about dupes and leave the girlfriend angle out.

Thats the secret to high karma!

How deep?

[mrjb]

"with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high" Sorry- can someone convert that to furlongs?